The mayor of Worthing said there are still many questions over whether the community could support a new state penitentiary.
The legislative task force deciding on a new prison site chose an area just south of Worthing as one of the four options.
Crystal Jacobson is the mayor of Worthing. She said it being chosen as one of the final locations came as a “shock.”
“We did not find out that Worthing was a contender for a prison site until the news media released the locations of the proposed sites back in, I think it was, April," Jacobson said. "We were kind of told, ‘Don’t worry about Worthing because they want too much for the land. It will go somewhere else.’ So, we were very caught off guard when we were one of the final three locations to be selected."
The Worthing property could cost the state over $14 million for 110 acres. That’s a third of the size for twice the cost of a previous Lincoln County site less than 10 miles away.
She said now, she’s gathering facts to let the task force know how this is going to impact the less-than-1,000-person community.
“We do not have the infrastructure in town to expand housing developments. We have half of our town has not even paved streets. It’s still gravel road. The infrastructure in the old part of town is outdated, so having to put money towards new infrastructure instead of updating the old infrastructure is going to be frustrating," Jacobson said. "We just recently built a system to accommodate approximately 130 houses. And that increased sewer bills to our small community. If we have a housing boom of more than 130 houses we have to look at the next step of what will our sewer have to look like at that point in time."
A Lincoln County-based group called Neighbors Opposing Prison Expansion, or NOPE, fought against the first site south of Harrisburg. Now they’re voicing opposition to the Worthing site.
Kyah Broders is the elected president of NOPE. She said NOPE is concerned with the task force looking at Worthing, because it believes legislators should be looking at existing Department of Corrections sites like those in Springfield and Sioux Falls.
“The intent of NOPE was never to just like kick into someone else’s, you know, jurisdiction or front door or however you wanna. We’re focused in on the people. Not only the taxpayers of South Dakota, but the incarcerated and those correctional officers because we obviously do want things that are better for them," Broders said. "But there’s areas where we can better utilize our taxpayer dollars if it really is going into the welfare of others. That would be things like rehabilitation, addiction treatment services. I think there’s a lot of other things we could be looking forward to. That’s where I think the public input and transparency, as to my previous point is so paramount."
She called the task force naming the Worthing site "concerning." She said the group has also had reach out from Mitchell, another site that has been met with public opposition. Broders said what NOPE has heard is that the focus shouldn't be on adding more sites, but "improving the living conditions of those that live as incarcerated individuals" and the DOC staff and others serving in the building.
This comes as another of the final four proposed sites in Mitchell faces mounting opposition. The other two proposals involve adding to existing prison facilities in Sioux Falls or Springfield.
The final Project Prison Reset Task Force meeting is scheduled for July 8 where they will hear different prison project options.
