The South Dakota Legislature and Executive branch agree something needs to change with the state’s approach to prisons and rehabilitation.
With both the state’s Legislative and Executive branches working in tandem, immediate change during the 101st Legislative session is a possibility.
Gov. Larry Rhoden formalized the Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force following the Legislature’s approval to build a 1,500-bed men’s prison in Sioux Falls. However, a legislative study was created prior to focus on reducing South Dakota’s recidivism rate.
The Governor-appointed task force is focused on long-term correctional rehabilitation. Per the executive order establishing the group, the task force’s work is allowed to continue through 2026.
Legislative Committee Wraps Up Work
The Legislature’s committee focused on Initial Incarceration, Reentry Analysis and Comparison of Relevant States. This Interim Committee has a chance to make a more immediate impact on the prison system, alongside the Governor’s separate, coinciding task force.
That’s primarily because the committee has already met three times. Sioux Falls Rep. Greg Jamison is co-chair of the legislative committee. He said they’ve already mulled over some ideas for the Legislature during session.
“So, we have a session starting in January of course, and our group can come up with some legislation that could change the rules in which the DOC operates and/or even start programs through recommendations that came through all those discussions that the DOC sees as valuable even,” Jamison said. “Even the Burl Cain approach could initially really begin tomorrow, really right away.”
Jamison said he expects their final draft of proposals and recommendations to come out within the next few days and weeks.
Rep. Tony Randolph is also on the Legislative committee. During committee discussion he said he’s approaching their work as two-pronged.
“There’s two things we can do: a short-term and a long-term. The short-term is where we can change how we look at the non-violent felonies. We can make some differences in there, and that will actually in the short-term change some of that,” Randolph said. “And the other has to do with the technical parole violations as well. We change that portion of it as well, that will change the recidivism in the short-term. In the long-term, implementing these programs that we’ve talked about here today that changes the head and the heart of the inmates. That’s the long-term solution.”
Burl Cain’s Pitch to South Dakota
Both Randolph and Jamison specifically mentioned a Christian-based program that was pitched by Burl Cain, the Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He was warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, considered
one of the worst prisons in the country when he started in January 1995.
When he joined, he implemented a program he claimed “changed the culture” of the prison. The program partners with an accredited Christian-based seminary to teach inmates how to “change their hearts” by learning Biblical-views of morality. Cain said it often multiplies, with inmates training to become pastors and minister other inmates. They also receive a degree through the program.
He asked legislators to look at implementing the program in South Dakota.
“We’re gonna put up the $15,000 it takes to start the nonprofit. We must keep the separation of church and state. Therefore, we won’t want state money,” Cain said. “We want to raise the funds. It’s a three-legged stool. We will form a nonprofit here…we just have to land the right folks. We have to raise the money; it’s going to cost about $130-140,000 a year to operate.”
“It’s like fish. We can’t catch them all, but we can dilute them to the point that we can have a safe prison. But you’ll always have inmates, and some of them will always want to be violent,” Cain said. “But if you dilute them with this program to the point that we have, you can have a very safe prison.”
Jon Ozmint was director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections from 2003-2011. He said the program he instilled while director turns out 16-20 graduates annually, he said installing Cain’s program in his corrections department the thing he was more grateful to leave.
“If you can use your influence as lawmakers to help your new corrections director in this administration leave this program in place, you will never regret it,” Ozmint said.
Sen. Chris Karr said he’d like to see proof in the numbers, not necessarily just the culture. He largely pointed that the committee was formed to focus on recidivism.
“You talked about research…What happens after prison?” Karr asked. “Do you have additional information regarding what happens after that incarceration and the recidivism?”
Cain said he didn’t have that information readily available yet. Ozmint said they tracked it in South Carolina by comparing faith-based reentry programming recidivism rates to the general rate. He said their general recidivism rate in South Carolina is 19%, but the rate of inmates who went through the programs is under 5%.
Karr asked for more follow-up data to analyze its effect on inmates who are released to see if the programs are successful.
Rep. Kadyn Wittman asked about religious concerns, noting that a large portion of South Dakota’s prison population is Indigenous.
“How did you ensure that non-Christian inmates received equal access to rehabilitation programs and participation and that it wasn’t coercive in anyway?” she asked.
Cain said they don’t care who’s in the program and what their religious background is. Ozmint said they let anyone, and that would include Indigenous people, to enter the program. However, he said they are receiving a Judeo-Christian, Biblical view of morality. But he said that morality is the same amongst faith groups.
“We encourage that. We don’t encourage people to be Christian,” Cain said. “We just learning the Bible. We learning the morality of it and we’re learning to be good citizens and to care one for the other.”
Cain said they toured the state pen, and that the SD DOC was “very positive” about the program, and they assured him there was “adequate space” at the current state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Sen. Sue Peterson was on the tour, and she said the staff said there was room at the school on the Hill today to implement such a program.
Rep. Randolph said during committee discussion that he was encourage by their presentation.
“The Gospel works,” Randolph said. “It did change the world from the beginning 2,000 years ago, so it is in the business of changing lives. The moral character of anyone gets affected by teaching the Gospel.”
Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force Meets for First Time
The Governor-appointed Correctional Rehabilitation task force’s initial meeting opened a line of communication between 30 task force members and the Department of Corrections. The DOC has come under fire by the Legislature recently for some of its policy changes.
The task force largely asked for more data centered around programming, success rates and more information around the DOC’s current rehabilitative efforts. Sioux Falls Sen. Chris Karr explained why he likes the data behind different programs.
“For a couple reasons. One, we’re all here to evaluate what our current situation is,” Karr said. “Two, probably make recommendations, and/or we’re going to have to defend why we should support this, and why our colleagues should support this and my appropriators should support this.”
During committee discussion, Karr said the task force should add a third-party group to analyze South Dakota’s DOC. He said it would add credibility to the task force’s work.
“We got a lot of people donating their time, and we’ve got to call balls and strikes and own our stuff sometimes. And frankly, again what we hear in presentations, and everything sounds great. But our numbers don’t show that,” Karr said. “Or at least they show that we could do better. And also, when I talk to some of the stakeholders, the things they’re telling us are not the same as what we’re hearing from the operational standpoint.”
Later during discussion, Rep. Greg Jamison motioned to engage the Council of State Governments Justice Center as a third-party consultant. He called its services and capabilities “complete.”
“They could initially start with an audit of our current existing programs, success ratios, cost of all those things and really give us a solid picture of exactly where we’re at,” Jamison said. “I don’t know about all of you, but it was kind of difficult. [The DOC presented] so many programs, so many acronyms, so many things going on. It’s like, how do you figure out which one is best or working?”
Jamison said he believes the Council of State Governments could also help the task force compare South Dakota’s programs to other states, because prison system statistics are often tracked differently on a state-by-state basis.
“At the end of the day, I can assure you, we’re all going to be judged on how other states are doing it. You know, somebody’s going to say, ‘Well, North Dakota does it better than we do.’ And we want to be able to be on the same platform as a starting point of sorts to be able to be compared fairly with those other states so we can feel success or address the failures as needed.”
The Council of State Governments Justice Center presented and told lawmakers they’ve worked with many states including South Dakota. They pointed out areas the state could see decreases in prison population by addressing all drug, property and public order admissions.
A key focus point of the task force is how to handle the disproportionate number of Native Americans incarcerated in South Dakota. Sen. Tamara Groves represents some Native Americans, including on the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Reservation. She’s hoping the task force could bridge the gap between the state and the tribes.
“I think that when you start having conversation, you start building a trust that we do not have right now,” Groves said. “How can we have some of these conversations? One would be to bring in some of the tribal police, Oglala Lakota, bring in Rosebud, I know we have some BIA in Lower Brule and Crow Creek. Perhaps if we have some conversations and say ‘What is really happening? And how do we work together to facilitate some of this stuff?’”
She said that includes looking at people who are struggling and acknowledging that, rather than throwing them in prison or jail. She said those conversations allow people to deal with other issues—like anxiety, depression and addiction.
“Maybe we can actually do something that’s constructive,” Groves said. “I don’t know that that necessarily means people don’t go to prison. I mean, that’s just the reality. But building trust between stateside and tribe would be the biggest thing.”
The Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force plans to meet again sometime in December. As part of those plans, they discussed breaking into four subcommittees to gather more information: education and skills training, faith-based, program for tribal populations and drug, alcohol and mental health treatment/programming.
At the December meeting they plan to discuss what the long-term approach to the task force should be.
