SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — As the state of South Dakota seeks to turn land in northeast Sioux Falls into a new men’s prison, much of the attention has focused on the facility’s location and cost. But less prevalent at times has been a focus on who spends time behind bars in South Dakota’s Department of Corrections.
Per the most recently available statistics from the South Dakota Department of Corrections and the U.S. Census Bureau, about 40% of the state’s inmates are Native American, while only around 8% of the state’s population is Native. But before anyone living in any community is in prison, different factors might increase the odds of incarceration.
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“Access to behavioral health, substance abuse treatment and just, opportunities,” said Democratic Sen. Red Dawn Foster of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, who lives in Pine Ridge. “Poverty is a huge reason why we are disproportionately represented in prison.”
“High poverty rates, unemployment, limited economic opportunities on reservations create conditions that are vulnerable, there’s vulnerability to crime and incarceration, right,” said J. Garret Renville, chairman of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe…