Prison builders say $650M, 1,500-bed correctional campus is doable

Senate Majority Leader Jim Mehlhaff says counterparts in Nebraska cutting corners on facility frequently cited by South Dakota prison plan skeptics

The construction companies that will build a new men’s state prison say they can deliver a 1,500-bed correctional facility for $650 million.

JE Dunn Construction and Henry Carlson Construction this week informed the state that cost limitations set by a task force of public safety officials and state lawmakers for the construction of a new state men’s prison can be met. That’s despite earlier reservations about whether the 1,500-bed, multi-level security prison called for by the state could be achieved for the $650 million cap recommended earlier this summer by Gov. Larry Rhoden’s Project Prison Reset Task Force.

In a letter sent to Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen, executives with JE Dunn and Henry Carlson Construction said work is underway to design a campus layout on 148 acres of land in northeast Sioux Falls that emerged as a preferred site for the Department of Corrections’ next prison complex. The project had originally been sited in rural Lincoln County and budgeted at $825 million.