Cost savings and improved outcomes emphasized at men’s prison groundbreaking

State and local leaders broke ground on the costliest state-funded capital project in South Dakota history on Wednesday, with a prediction to bring it in under budget and pledges to double down on rehabilitation efforts for state prison inmates.

Gov. Larry Rhoden, moments before donning a plastic construction-site-grade cowboy hat for a series of ceremonial groundbreaking photos, spoke to an assembled crowd at the Bahnson Avenue site in northeast Sioux Falls. To mark the start of his speech, construction crews raised a massive South Dakota flag, which flapped violently for a few moments before high winds forced it to be lowered.

Rhoden said the 1,500-bed, $650 million men’s prison represents a generational investment in public safety. 

“I’ve said before that no governor wants to be remembered for building a prison, but I’m proud of the work we did to get here,” Rhoden said.

Rhoden’s predecessor, former Gov. Kristi Noem, had championed a more expensive option at a different location some 15 miles to the south in rural Lincoln County. That plan met a buzzsaw of community opposition upon site selection in late 2023 and sparked a lawsuit against the state. That opposition helped animate opposition in the state Legislature, which voted down the initial $825 million prison plan in February 2025 — the month after Rhoden took over for Noem, who’d left her post for a job in the Trump administration. Read the full story at South Dakota Searchlight.