SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – The clock is ticking for the task force that will decide the future of a new men’s prison in South Dakota. Currently the group is gathering a list of properties around Sioux Falls that could be home to the new facility.
Project Prison Reset is about three months out from the vote to appropriate funds for the new men’s prison. State representative Greg Jamison is a member of the task force and says one priority is that it’s close to Sioux Falls. “We need still a workforce that can work at the prison. So that proximity to Sioux Falls on the 20 mile range or so kind of gives us some comfort that individuals would work at the prison and still be able to live in town and drive back and forth and it’s not too far,” Jamison said. Right now the group is gathering recommendations for potential locations. The former Citibank campus on the north side of Sioux Falls has put itself up for consideration for the new prison site. “When I first heard about the Citibank complex as kind of an option. It was kind of like, wow, okay well so right inside the city in a commercially zoned area is an interesting approach. Because our mindset has always been way out in the country, away from everybody, a no neighbors kind of attempt,” Jamison said.
State representative Karla Lems is one of the task force members who visited the former Citibank location…