Prison families group hopes to push lawmakers, corrections officials to address concerns

Attendees gather at the Sioux Falls downtown library for a meeting of the group South Dakotans Impacted by Incarceration on Sept. 19, 2024. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

SIOUX FALLS — Family members and friends of people in state prison packed a downtown library meeting room Thursday night in Sioux Falls for the first meeting of a group that aims to put pressure on the Department of Corrections (DOC) to address their concerns.

The organizers of South Dakotans Impacted By Incarceration told the 70 in-person attendees and 40 online viewers that their plans include regular meetings, advocacy and outreach to those in power.

A panel of lawmakers, activists and a county sheriff fielded questions and heard concerns for an hour and a half, with many personal stories and calls to action met with raucous applause.

Co-founder Erin Vicars of Sioux Falls told the crowd that she and co-founder Nieema Thasing of Elkton began discussions on creating a group about five months ago, in part as a response to controversies and security issues that have played out over the past eight months.

Outbreaks of violence at two state prisons and multiple lockdowns, including a lockdown currently in place at the penitentiary, have occurred since March. The DOC imposed a temporary shutdown of tablet-based communications and placed call limits on inmates afterward, and the prices of commissary items have also become a point of contention between inmates and the agency.

"I am here because I think we should have a voice," Vicars said. "Your voice matters."

At one point, Vicars asked how many attendees had family members in prison who'd been denied medications prescribed to them by doctors outside the walls. There were 20 hands in the air.

Showing up in public and telling shared stories about those situations, Thasing said, is one way to counter the DOC.

"If 1,000 people show up and talk about what has happened with their loved ones, they can't say that all of us are lying," Thasing said. "That was 20 hands just on one issue."

The DOC did not respond to a South Dakota Searchlight request for comment on the medication allegations, or to questions about volunteer and reentry programs.

Rep. Kadyn Wittman, D-Sioux Falls, was part of the panel, as were Brookings County Sheriff Marty Stanwick; The Hub South Dakota Director and former state trooper Julian Beaudion; life coach and community activist Terry Liggins; a volunteer prison chaplain named Boots Among Trees; and former state lawmaker Tim Goodwin of Rapid City, who's running for another term this fall.

Also in attendance in the audience were Rep. Tom Pischke, R-Dell Rapids; Sen. Reynold Nesiba, D-Sioux Falls; Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls; Sen. Liz Larson, D-Sioux Falls; and former speaker of the South Dakota House Steve Haugaard, R-Sioux Falls.

Panelists: Vote, vote, vote

Early on in the meeting, Thasing asked all current and former lawmakers to stand up and to stay standing. Pieschke initially remained seated near the back of the room, but stood when he was called out.

Thasing thanked them for coming, but also said she was disappointed in the state and local officials who didn't come.

The group sent "250 emails," Thasing said as the crowd applauded, "and this is who showed up – and showed out."

She urged attendees to remember which lawmakers were in the room to hear their concerns, so that "when you see them on the street, you can walk up and say 'did you handle that?'"

Thasing, who is also president of the League of Women Voters in Brookings, told the crowd to "vote, vote, vote" if they want change.

Beaudion, the former state trooper, repeated that line several times during his remarks. He told attendees that he sees criminal justice issues from both sides, as a former trooper whose siblings have been incarcerated.

Prisons are not set up to provide for "basic human needs," he said, which forces family members on the outside to provide financial and emotional support. Multiple attendees talked about putting money in their family members' inmate accounts so they can buy food to supplement their meals or avoid the cafeteria meals. Heads nodded as others told stories of "inedible" food and health problems they say are caused by it.

Liggins, who helped organize the Tuesday event, spent time in federal prison and now supports other family members behind bars, he said. He's been free for eight years. He remembers needing support, and now understands the stress of offering it. The support is critical, he said.

"I know the incarcerated person leans on you, hard, and they ask for things, and they request things, and you do a damned good job providing for them," Liggins said.

He decried a dearth of mental health options in prison, a lack of reentry support, and a lack of access to post-secondary education.

"I have raised my hand in this community for eight years of my reentry, and I have yet to get a meeting with the Department of Corrections secretary, from anybody on that end," Liggins said. "I've yet to have an opportunity to make a difference in this state."

Volunteers who work at the DOC are required to pass background checks. At one point, a woman named Sam Dixon stood up, holding a phone, saying she had an inmate on the line who wanted to address the group. The inmate was not identified.

He thanked everyone for coming, then told the group that official DOC programs like parenting classes, relationship classes and classes on restorative justice are "not happening" at the penitentiary.

He urged "anyone who can pass a background check" to consider volunteering, because "we desperately need volunteers." He said inmates have worked with volunteers to start a Toastmasters club in prison, a yoga group and an alternatives to violence group, among others.

"We cannot sit around and wait for our administration to help us," he said. "Us prisoners have been networking and finding amazing members of our community to come start programs, and it has been amazingly successful."

Lawmakers: Issues raise questions about leadership

Troubles with volunteer and reentry programs were also part of discussions from lawmakers.

Goodwin said he volunteers with a group called St. Dysmas. The nonprofit organizes church services at the penitentiary.

Lately, however, there have been scheduling issues. Services were held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays. This year, he said, the DOC changed the time, first to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, which made it harder for volunteers with day jobs. More recently, he said, the time was switched to 8:30 a.m. on Wednesdays.

"For all the churches that sign up to sponsor this, that means you've got to be at the pen at 7:30 a.m.," Goodwin said.

The lockdowns and steady stream of changes to scheduling have left him questioning the agency's leadership as discussions continue on a new men's prison in rural Lincoln County.

If it withstands legal challenges and lawmaker skepticism, the prison — for which lawmakers have set aside $569 million and counting — will be the most expensive capital project in state government's history.

"If we're going to put all this money into a new prison, we ought to have confidence in our leadership," Goodwin said. "We shouldn't be digressing and having lockdowns."

Wittman, who represents a district that includes the state penitentiary, said she's volunteered at the prison for more than three years. She's "passionate about reentry programs," she said, in part because of her time as an employee of the Bishop Dudley House shelter in Sioux Falls, where some inmates go when they're released.

"The first place they're walking to is the Bishop Dudley House," Wittman said. "And I can tell you right now, the Bishop Dudley house is not well equipped to handle ..."

At that point, an attendee cut Wittman off from the back of the room by shouting "that's the most dangerous place for them to go to."

Wittman called the shelter "a rough place." But, she said, "that's not on the Bishop Dudley House."

"What I'm telling all of you is that I don't think we have appropriate resources and support systems in place for folks upon release, and we are setting them up to fail," Wittman said.

Haugaard has been a critic of the DOC in recent months. He's testified in legislative committees against the state's plans for a new prison, and appeared at the most recent meeting of the state's Corrections Commission.

That group, he said, ought to have more oversight and authority to push for changes at the DOC.

Haugaard told attendees to address their concerns to the penitentiary and DOC, but also to the Governor's Office and Attorney General's Office, so "everybody's aware that this complaint is floating out there."

He also said it's important to advocate for parole, probation and reentry program dollars in Pierre.

"There's no reason why we should have such a high incarceration rate in the state," Haugaard said. "If we were adequately funding probation and parole, that wouldn't be the situation."

Vicars told South Dakota Searchlight that the group intends to hold an October meeting, but the date hasn't been set.