Helping Kids: Other Locations and No Max Security
The Sioux Falls Metro Area isn't working. Maybe it's time to try something else.
There is a tremendous focus on what happens within the prison walls and to the prisoners once they leave the system, but there is very little discussion on what happens to the families of prisoners.
The average prisoner has 2.5 kids. That means that a prison population of about 3400, like we have in South Dakota, impacts about 8500 kids. That’s a lot of kids.
Depending on the choices that the families make, these kids are sometimes uprooted and moved, sometimes near the prison and sometimes to other locations. Some end up in Foster Care. As one might expect, these kids struggle to adapt, many ending up with significant psychological issues and a good number in the justice system.
Finances are often very tight when someone is incarcerated. A large number of people in prison have very low incomes before they are incarcerated and things just become worse for a family once one of the wage earners is behind bars.
Sadly, most of our prisons are located in metro areas, either the Rapid City or Sioux Falls Metro Areas, so there are not really any reasonable options for families that can’t afford city costs or don’t want to move their kids into an environment with city crime, temptations, and stresses.
Also, Sioux Falls is an expensive location for people (almost $5000 per month for a family) who choose to relocate and can be very lonely for people that move to be close to a loved one who is incarcerated (it is not the easiest place to integrate). Perhaps that is one of the reasons the visitation rate at the State Penitentiary and Jamison Annex is low.
On the other hand, Springfield and Yankton are more reasonable (Springfield about $2500/month for a family and Yankton about $3810/month for a family) and and are much smaller (Springfield about 2000 people and Yankton about 16,000 people) so it is easier for families to integrate quickly. Also, it is nice that these towns are different sizes, which would provide options for the diverse population in South Dakota (some prefer very rural and some prefer a little bigger).
Both of these towns already have prison infrastructure so these locations should probably be on the short list for places where we should expand our prison.
Also, I find it interesting that there is a continual focus on services. Florida has a lot of prisons in small towns and they handle services just fine (so well that the recidivism there is about half what it is in South Dakota). I lived in a small prison town in that state and there were plenty of doctors, counselors, churches, food service options, etc. And one has to wonder if the best therapy might be seeing your kids more regularly.
Another option is to move our maximum security prisoners to another state that is better equipped to handle their special needs and keep them from creating issues that are challenging for us to manage. With such a small number of maximum security prisoners (a couple of hundred), this is probably a VERY wise decision.
After all, what we are doing at the State Penitentiary and Jamison Annex in Sioux Falls isn’t working. When that’s the case, we probably need to change the paradigm.
Very great points. I’d like to know why state leaders are completely ignoring a Springfield expansion as an option. It’s modern enough and already designed for that option. Having these families and inmates themselves hours away from their former counterparts and Social atmosphere can be a major benefit to their rehabilitation.
A sole focus on Sioux Falls growth is also getting tiring for the other 250,000+ citizens of this state that are funding it.
Well boo-hoo-hoo for the families of the criminals, so what!!!! I care about the victims of the criminals, they matter. Every criminal out there had more thanone family member that sat and did absolutely nothing when they knew better. How many mother and grandmother sit and shed crocodile tears because he was a good bot. They knew better. Travon Martin had a rap sheet three feet long, but the liars in the media kept showing that criminal in his high school football tunic, and he barely made the team! He was a teenage thug! Micheal Brown, same thing he was a monster. George Floyd was a drug addict that threatened pregnant women! No, the families of criminals deserve nothing at all, nothing. This idiotic charity for criminals is why we have too many criminals and need more prisons.
Another SDV hypocrisy. You do not want a prison in your back yard but support criminals that need to be in prison. Pick one, either support the law and victims or support prison for the criminals you support.