We did not stab Rhoden in the back

Greetings. Forgive me for writing about the state penitentiary. I guess to shorten that word, we will use pen. My understanding in the confinement world: jails are what towns have, prisons are what counties have and the penitentiary is a state facility. South Dakota doesn’t have any federal penitentiaries.

The Secretary of Corrections, Kelly Wasko, has resigned her position effective Oct. 20. In an interview, Gov. Rhoden said he accepted her resignation but did not ask for it. He also stated that 20 legislators had signed a letter to him asking for her resignation before the special session Sept. 23. He also added that he was disappointed that only one of the 20 picked up the phone and called him.

I was one of the 20 signers and wasn’t the one who called. All 20 of us obviously were in harmony when we signed the letter. To insinuate we, as he told me in person, stabbed him in the back, couldn’t be further from the truth. The letter we sent him said what needed to be done for us to vote for the new pen. It was a road map to passage.

As far as not keeping him informed with all of us calling him, here is my way of operating. On July 31 when I went into the pen for St. Dysmas church services and smelled and saw prisoners blatantly smoking synthetic marijuana I called the attorney general and lieutenant governor and reported this unbelievable situation. I also reported to both that the 12 of us attending the service were sent into the pen without a guard or body alarms. That had not ever happened before in my attending church services there. Looking back on the situation, we were at risk and I believe now it was intentional.

A few days after July 31  Wasko called me regarding my visit. When I informed her of not having body alarms, she apologized for that but remarked, “I need a new prison.” When I was telling her about inmates out of their cells openly smoking synthetic marijuana she said she was well aware of that! “I need a new prison” was her remark.  She also added the screening device of metal detectors wasn’t capable of finding synthetic marijuana and that she needed a new prison.

When asked how this would change in the new prison, she said that airport body scanners were necessary to find any paraphernalia on a person. My next question was why don’t we have them now? She remarked, “they” wouldn’t allow her to purchase them because they were too expensive. When I asked the price, she said $30,000 apiece. When I asked how many she needed, she remarked that three airport body scanners would stop anything unauthorized from coming into the pen.

So, I recapped saying that three airport body scanners at a cost of less than $1 million would solve the crisis and she replied that it would. I told her then to order them immediately. She gave me an “excuse me” remark, so I told her again to order them and say “per my (Rep. Goodwin) request.” I then called both the attorney general and the lieutenant governor and told them about our conversation and they both agreed. I also informed the Speaker of the House and the Majority Leader. All 20 legislators who signed the letter were notified.

Also notable is that when attending that church service, there were two House members and one senator. So for Gov. Rhoden to make it sound like we were going around him and, using his words, “stabbing him in the back” is simply not true. Being a retired military man, I understand the chain of command. I ran everything and then some up the chain.

Before the next writing, I’d like to know why we are building a $650 million facility for 1,500 prisoners when we are only replacing The Hill (1891 portion) with a prison population of 724? I know we have the highest recidivism rate in the nation but the new pen is more than double the size needed. Makes no sense to me. Let’s lower recidivism as we are paying for it in recurring offenders.