South Dakota House members reject prison funding bill

Supporters tried saving bill with an amended version, but event that wasn't enough

The vote board for House Bill 1025. (Jonathan Ellis/The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE – Supporters of an endangered prison funding bill tried putting it on a life raft Friday, but even that couldn’t save it from sinking.

The House rejected a plan to transfer $148.1 million from the general fund to the prison incarceration fund. The bill in its original form authorized the Department of Corrections (DOC) to build a new prison in Lincoln County, the DOC’s planned 1,500-bed men’s prison south of Harrisburg.

That bill would have required a two-thirds majority — a requirement of the South Dakota Constitution. But in the days leading up to the vote, it was apparent to observers that the votes didn’t exist to build the facility, with its price tag of $825 million.

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