Rhoden Prison Plan Needs $42M in Future Interest, $79M From Reserves to Reach $650M Target

Rhoden Prison Plan Needs $42M in Future Interest, $79M from Reserves to Reach $650M Target

The big Special Session on the new prison is coming up Tuesday. Governor Larry Rhoden is thus loading up lawmakers and the voters with numbers explaining what it will cost South Dakota to replace its aging penitentiary with a new lockup a couple miles down the river. According to the Governor’s figures, we already have $505 million in the Incarceration Construction Fund. We’ve earned another $24M in interest on that money; Rhoden expects another…

State lost $21 million on failed Lincoln County prison site, governor’s office says

South Dakota taxpayers lost $21 million when their leaders abandoned plans for a men’s prison in southern Lincoln County. Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden’s office released the figure to lawmakers on Wednesday and to the public on Thursday. It came as part of what he described as a funding plan for a prison in Sioux Falls, the merits of which will be debated during a special session of the Legislature on Tuesday in Pierre. Lawmakers in February reje…