Hometown paper blasts Kristi Noem for 'my-way-or-the-highway style of negotiations'

11 March

Homeland security secretary nominee Kristi Noem walks through Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 10, 2024. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz

I always look forward to South Dakota Searchlight’s daily email of state and national news. The editor who puts that email together probably didn’t mean for it to happen, but one day recently there was quite a juxtaposition of two stories about prisons.

In the state news there was reporting about Gov. Larry Rhoden doing the right thing by suspending legislative action on the new prison and appointing a committee to seek a way forward on the project. In the national news there was another story about a $1 billion contract the federal government was signing with GEO Group, a private prison company, for detaining up to 1,000 immigrants in New Jersey.

The story about the appointment of Rhoden’s committee to work on the prison project was good news for South Dakota. That project has been lamented by various groups ever since its inception. Rhoden’s call for a “reset” was the right one after the Legislature proved that it was unwilling to release the funding for the 1,500-bed men’s prison that would be located about 15 miles south of Sioux Falls.

Governor relents, appoints task force to reset prison talks after legislative loss

The reset work group, made up of legislators and various law enforcement types, will meet four times starting on April 2, culminating in a special legislative session on July 22. In announcing the reset, Rhoden kept talking about “a new prison.” Don’t be surprised, however, if the work group finds that the easiest way forward is to bulk up existing prison facilities or use current Corrections Department locations rather than pick another fight with a new set of neighbors who don’t want a prison in their backyard.

As for the New Jersey prison story, that one was full of dollar signs. George Zoley, the founder and executive chairman of GEO Group, talked about how increasing the bed capacity at the company’s prisons, due to the need to detain more immigrants, could result in annual revenues up to $600 million.

One of the elements that connects the two stories is their similar price tags — the billion dollar cost of the federal contract and the $825 million price tag on South Dakota’s prison project. Former Gov. Kristi Noem and the Legislature worked for years to save enough for a new prison. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, run now by Noem as secretary of Homeland Security, agreed to a billion-dollar prison contract with the stroke of a pen.

After six years as South Dakota’s governor, leading a federal agency must seem like heaven for Noem when it comes to getting the prison space that she needs:

No Lincoln County neighbors who got cranky and vocal when they were surprised by the state’s plan to plop down a new prison next door.No litigation over the state’s failure to apply for a county zoning permit.No recalcitrant new-age Republican lawmakers who refuse to go along with the governor’s plan for a new prison.No worries that the $62 million allocated for prison design and site prep work on her watch — much of which has already been spent — might be wasted if the “reset” work group decides to go in another direction.

South Dakota finds itself having to “reset” its prison project largely because of Noem’s management style. With her penchant for secrecy and her my-way-or-the-highway style of negotiations, she poisoned the project since its inception. If Noem had been open about the process, willing to follow local rules and welcoming of other ideas and opinions, the state would be well on its way to building a new men’s prison rather than being forced to start over.

Rhoden made a difficult choice when he made the right call to give the state’s prison project more study. Too bad that kind of clear-headed leadership has not been on display in Pierre since the start of the project.

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South Dakota Searchlight is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. South Dakota Searchlight maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Seth Tupper for questions: info@southdakotasearchlight.com.

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