Guest post: Wismer updates South Dakota voters on prison plan

Editor's note: Democratic former South Dakota State Senator Wismer repeatedly warns about the risk of Earth haters holding supermajorities in the legislature and that the state is living in the "dark ages." Her reasoning is hardly mysterious. It’s all about the money a too big to jail banking racket, video lootery, a medical industry triopoly, prostitution, the Sturgis Rally, policing for profit, sex trafficking, hunting and subsidized grazing bring to the SDGOP destroying lives, depleting watersheds and smothering habitat under single-party rule. So, instead of building a nearly billion dollar prison the state should spend the money to house, feed and educate people. 

The reported contractor for the proposed prison build out is Henry Carlson Construction, LLC. Henry Carlson, Jr. was the guy who helped create the Future Fund and until his death in 2022 was a regular contributor to the Governor's Club.

Susan Wismer is still speaking out. The following column appears at her Faceberg page.

Next Tuesday, September 23, will be a big day for South Dakota. The legislature will be meeting to finally approve the construction of the new state prison. The money is available without borrowing, thanks to Biden/COVID windfalls to the state (and some really creative accounting) the last few years. As Ryan Brunner writes below, it's time to focus on the facts. This issue has been studied to death, and it's long past time for action.

Nevertheless, a substantial block of "heads in the sand" legislators are threatening to vote no on the project; most are pandering to their conservative primary voters... No one likes to spend money building prisons, but the right decisions are often not the easy ones. District One's own Logan Manhart typically follows that naysayers block, though I haven't heard him commit one way or another since last winter, when he was a big NO. NO would be an irresponsible vote.

If you care about public safety, the safety of prison guards, or inmates, you know this is a project our state has pushed down the road for 40 years and it needs to happen ASAP. If you care about our state's high recidivism rate, (the rate at which inmates recycle through the corrections system) or if you care about the subtle pressure judges are under not to sentence people who should be in prison to our overcrowded facilities, you know a YES vote is needed. This fresh batch of legislators that had to be brought up to speed last summer on an issue that any legislator ought to have already studied up on, has already cost us a year's construction season.

One of the many improvements in the new facility will be space for increased inmate education, job training, and addiction treatment services. Why wouldn't we want to help inmates be all they can be once they rejoin society? Won't their success increase our public safety? Won't it help keep them from recycling back into the expensive prison system?

Some of that increased space has already been cut back in the name of cutting construction costs. What a typically "penny-wise and pound-foolish" decision! For far too long, pleas for those services have been ignored and/or sacrificed on the altar of low taxes. It's been refreshing to hear support for those services included in this discussion, in part thanks to our Native American legislators.

If you care about a family member involved in the corrections system as an inmate, or staff, share your story with Rep. Manhart and ask him to vote YES. He needs to know voters he's never met are paying attention to his votes. Please help make sure that NESD doesn't stand in the way of doing the responsible thing for our people and state.