SIOUX FALLS — Last year, lawmakers coalesced around the need to improve rehabilitation programming and reduce recidivism rates as part of a broader investment in South Dakota’s prison system. Those two issues were sticking points in an ultimately successful effort to approve construction of a men’s prison.
Yet during the 2026 legislative session that wrapped up earlier this month, few bills were brought forward to address inmate rehabilitation needs, lawmakers on a Downtown Sioux Falls Rotary Club panel said on Monday.
One bill passed that makes it easier for people released from prison to return to their home area, rather than remaining in the area the prison is located. It requires the Department of Corrections to transport released people to their home county, the county where they were sentenced, or to a location equivalent in distance to the closer of those two options. Gov. Larry Rhoden signed the bill into law earlier this month…