State Penitentiary Overcrowding Rebounds onto County Taxpayers
- Steve Jurrens
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
Northeast Radio SD News – Watertown, SD - A portion of the sheriff’s report focused on an escalating capacity crisis within the South Dakota Department of Corrections, which is forcing Codington County to house fully sentenced state convicts for extended periods due to a lack of space in state facilities. The jail’s average daily population (ADP) for April hovered at 51.87 inmates, peaking at a high of 60 on April 19.
“There’s a lot more parole holds and holds for the penitentiary,” Sheriff Howell informed the board. “The pen is full—the female pen and the male pen. There’s about a month-long wait to get our inmates in that are sentenced to the penitentiary... so we’re holding sentenced inmates that aren’t parolees for the state.”
This backlog creates a glaring financial dispute between the county and the state. While the state automatically compensates the county at a set rate of $95 per day for holding parole violators, it lacks a formal contract for holding fully sentenced state inmates who are stuck waiting for an open cell in the state prison.
In response, Sheriff Howell has begun billing the state an increased rate of $130 per day for those sentenced individuals, though the state continues to shortchange the county by only paying the base $95 fee.
“We are receiving $95 a day for parolees,” Howell stated. “I bill for $130 for the sentenced to the pen, because they’re not parolees... but they’re paying us 95. We don’t have a contract with the state for that, so they’re reverting back to the $95 thing. Our State’s Attorney is looking into that legally a little bit right now.”
