Advocates say changes within South Dakota’s prison system can’t come soon enough. However, the impact of any changes won’t be fully seen for years.
A group of 30 individuals tasked with solving issues within the state’s Department of Corrections met for the second time on Wednesday. The governor-appointed Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force approved multiple recommendations to achieve “quick wins” now and then discussed future plans on how to foster change that will take longer to conduct.
This comes alongside the Department of Correction’s annual statistical report which revealed, among other things, 50% of the offenders released in 2021 returned to prison within three years. That’s a 7% increase from the 2020 cohort, according to data in the FY 2024 statistical report. The primary goal of the task force is to lower that rate for the state’s prison system.
To help in the immediate future, the task force approved a Prison Seminary Model that could start as soon as the infrastructure is in place at the current South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Burl Cain, the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, pitched the program to lawmakers in October.
Gov. Larry Rhoden issued a press release shortly after Wednesday’s meeting saying he’d accepted that recommendation.
It establishes a four-year fully accredited degree program that gives inmates training in theology, core academic subjects and other areas to serve as peer ministers within the prison.
New head of the DOC, Secretary Jeremy Lamb, has previous experience with the program from a stint in Illinois.
“We had a lot going on in Stateville [Correctional Center in Crest Hill, Illinois]. It was around the clock, busy, busy, busy. And within six months our inmate-on-inmate assaults and our inmate-on-staff assaults went away just because of this program,” Lamb said. “That’s my first-hand experience with this program. No matter what your religious beliefs are, or whatever you think, this program works. It’s worked everywhere they’ve tried.”
The group primarily supported the program because it looks at changing morals and how it “changes lives.”
“I’m hopeful that we will see lives changed, because if we don’t see lives changed, I don’t know what we’re doing here,” Rep. John Hughes said. “We’re just managing statistics and personal failures [then].”
Tribal partnerships a likely key to reform
The task force is putting special focus on Native Americans within the prison system. The state’s prison population overrepresents Native Americans compared to the general population.
Bridget Coppersmith works at the South Dakota Department of Corrections. She told the task force that Native Americans also recidivate at a higher clip than their non-Native counterparts.
“Your recidivism rate for calendar year 2021 cohort, of the Native American offenders that released, 59% of them recidivate which is higher than the 50% for the state,” Coppersmith said.
The task force made some recommendations Wednesday but continues to seek more in-depth research into reform.
The task force recommended 11 other actions at the request of the Tribal Subcommittee:
· Designate the Sisseton/Wahpeton Oyate parole program as a flagship model;
· Restore evening volunteer hours;
· Adopt a standardize DOC reentry checklist;
· Approve pending AVP workshops;
· Formally recognize the Unified Program Leadership Council;
· Reduce the five-year volunteer contact ban;
· Establish quarterly volunteer roundtables;
· Prioritize M-2 program revitalization;
· Pilot a Tribal Cultural Liaison role (6 months);
· Ensure ID issuance before release; and
· Create a rapid MOU template for tribal supervision.
The group discussed the challenges these particular recommendations present, namely lack of trust between the sovereign tribes and the South Dakota government.
“I think it would be important for this Administration to try to maybe close that gap and get that trust back,” Sen. Joy Hohn said. “So I do feel that that would be instrumental in helping us through this process.”
Chair of the task force, Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen said it’s a complex issue when working between the two governments.
“This is a very touchy subject. The tribes are very protective of their sovereignty, and rightfully so. We shouldn’t expect that they’ll all nine just all go along with this. There’s also leadership turnover,” Venhuizen said. “Some have very stable leadership and others have more frequent turnover. So, those are things that can affect it too. This is not as easy you might think it would be, or we can make it sound. There’s a lot of things that go into these decisions from both ends.”
Others agreed and said the state needs to come at the situation holistically with the nine tribes.
“As a state we don’t want to create this divide between state and sovereignty. We’re just trying to find connections to find solutions. So, we respect the fact that they’re sovereign nations. We respect the fact that they have their own identities within the reservations,” Rep. Tessa Schwans said. “It’s what can we do to work together so that we can help reduce the amount of recidivism, reduce the amount of incarcerations and what can we do to partner with them?”
Success takes time
However, not all of the changes made can have an immediate impact.
At Wednesday’s meeting, members generally agreed the time to act is now. That includes Tea Sen. Ernie Otten. He discussed the state setting aside money now to support rehabilitation in the DOC.
“I think fundamentally, we’re working on something that can change the entire structure of South Dakota itself in how we deal with this stuff,” Otten said. “You’ll never see an opportunity to be had like this ever.”
Otten specifically discussed setting aside money now, so the state has money saved up to make larger ongoing expenditures the DOC may need. Lawmakers say that investment could save the taxpayer more money in the long run if fewer prisoners reoffend after being released.
Sara Friedman is the Program Director for the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a third-party consultant for the task force. She says South Dakota tracks recidivism on a three-year rate, and most programs can take a year to start up.
“So, you all are just a long way,” Friedman said. “There’s not immediate feedback of, ‘Is this working’ when it comes to reducing recidivism rates specifically.”
However, Friedman says there are other ways to see if a new program is working the way it’s intended to.
“You look at improvements in institutional behavior. I think that’s a really important one especially given everything going on. If a program improves institutional behavior I think that would be successful in some ways,” Friedman said. “Once people are out in the community, you can look at other indicators that are not a three-year-do-they-come back. So, are they maintaining stable housing? Are they maintaining stable employment? Are they stopping their drug use?”
Friedman said her group is looking ahead for laws that can create meaningful change, even though some have requested changes to be made now.
“I haven’t analyzed the data or done the assessment work yet to tell you for the 2026 session,” Friedman said. “Everything that I am doing is how do I set you all up for the 2027, not the 2026, legislative session.”
Friedman said based on what she has looked at so far, suggests the DOC has some positive things in programming, namely with cognitive behavioral therapy.
“It seems like you’re starting from a solid foundation here,” Friedman said. I think there are questions I have heard from all of you as like, ‘Who is actually getting these programs? How often are they administered? How many people go through them?’ Those are things I want to help you figure out as I’m doing this program assessment over the next few months.”
She later said that data shows the curriculum a system uses doesn’t matter if it’s not done at a high quality.
“So, it’s really important as you want to look for these recidivism gains to ensure the quality of program staff training and implementation is there,” Friedman said.
