The overflow room for a Jan. 22, 2024, court hearing in Canton about the proposed site of a new state penitentiary. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)
CANTON — The notion that the state of South Dakota needs county permission to build a state penitentiary is absurd, a lawyer representing the state Department of Corrections said Monday.
That argument from Assistant Attorney General Grant Flynn came during a Monday hearing at the Lincoln County Courthouse in a lawsuit that aims to scuttle construction of a new state penitentiary on the state’s selected site 15 miles south of Sioux Falls.
A sign opposing the proposed prison site in Lincoln County, as seen at a community meeting in Harrisburg on Dec. 21, 2023. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)
The state has asked Judge Jennifer Mammenga to dismiss the lawsuit from a group called “Neighbors Opposed to Prison Expansion,” or NOPE.
The lawsuit was born of opposition to the rural Lincoln County location of the planned 1,500-bed penitentiary, but the case could have serious, long-term implications for state capital projects if the landowners succeed.