During a prison work group meeting on April 2, 2025, Ryan Brunner, an adviser to South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden, points toward the property line of land in rural Lincoln County that had been surveyed for the purpose of constructing a men’s prison. (John Hult/South Dakoa Searchlight. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)
When the South Dakota Department of Corrections announced the site where it hoped to build a 1,500-bed men’s prison in 2023, it told the public it was the only usable site available.
The state had sent a request for information months earlier, hoping someone would offer up land for the project. No one who was willing to sell had exactly what the state was after, Corrections Secretary Kellie Wasko said …