What location will the state build its new prison?
l3wis Will it be built in Sioux Falls? I would assume that they would either have to build it in the city limits or in a suburb of Sioux Falls in order to have the workforce. A rumor swirling around is to build it at the 1880 Cowboy Town or the Buffalo Ridge Ghost Town (which is on I-90).
Patrick Lalley with his new digs at siouxfallslive.com throws around an interesting idea;
Here’s the question, what land?
There’s not much left on the current site, perched as it is on the bluff overlooking a packing plant, Falls Park, downtown and the verdant city beyond.
There’s the diversion channel to the east, rail lines and the airport to the north and housing to the southwest.
Where oh where will our prison go?
What an opportunity to transform the industrial and penal character of that high-profile section of the city, not just on the top of the bluff, but down below.
Maybe, and this is crazy dreamy stuff, the prison and the packing plant are a package deal.
The whole debate over where Wholestone Farms should build their plant only refocused the reality of the legacy of Smithfield.
Lalley is suggesting we tear down the old prison AND Smithfields and use the area for redevelopment. Yeah, it’s a pipe dream and Lalley knows it.
Smithfields isn’t going anywhere and as for the prison, I wouldn’t be surprised if the state sells it to a private developer who may remodel the existing prison for a different use like Dakotabilities did with the former Jefferson elementary. Take the bars off the windows and you could repurpose it for a pretty cool apartment building.
We will see if the legislature even passes the funding. $52 million seems like a lot of coin just for land acquisition and design. And where would we get money to actually build it? This facility could easily cost north of $100 million.
Prison building is just a scam on the taxpayers to make the private vendors who service the prison money and little else.
Will local leadership like Sioux Falls district legislators, council and mayor fight to keep the prison in the city limits? Likely not, but I would encourage the state and the city to do an economic impact study of the financial benefits of the prison. Personally I think we could save taxpayers millions by releasing all non-violent offenders with ankle monitors and drug tests while on parole. But that would require our legislature to have compassion, something they locked away decades ago.
