South Dakota committed to dumping death camp

Brady Folkens of Brookings died in state custody after a botched diagnosis at the former State Treatment and Rehabilitation (STAR) Academy in a county named for a war criminal on December 21, 2013 then the State of South Dakota's Office of Risk Management helped to bury the evidence of negligent homicide. After a public outcry the death camp was shuttered and the sprawling property south of town sold at auction for the minimum bid of $2.34 million. The buyers were a group of investors represented at the sale by real estate agent and former mayor Jared Carson but have since defaulted on their commitment.

South Dakota's school to prison pipeline began in 1983 when Republican Governor Bill Janklow concocted a plan to convert the University of South Dakota at Springfield into a prison. Then the state killed Gina Score in a boot camp, ended environmental protection and accelerated the red moocher state's descent into the hellish chemical toilet it is today.

STAR Academy's predecessors, South Dakota Tuberculosis Sanatorium and Custer State Hospital at Sanator have macabre histories of their own.

Sen. Jeff Partridge, R-Rapid City, said the campus is a drain on the state’s finances. “This is a facility that was getting old, getting tired and getting aged, and frankly not going in the direction of even being able to move forward with it,” Partridge said. “The folks that were working there when we toured it when it was still open said this thing is really hard to stay up with code and to stay current.” The state spent $550,000 to maintain the multiple buildings on the 173-acre campus last year, according to testimony offered during the Senate debate. The governor’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to SDPB questions about the future of the campus.

Read or listen to the rest at Bill Janklow's idea of public radio