A housing unit at the new women’s prison in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Courtesy of South Dakota Department of Corrections)
RAPID CITY (South Dakota Searchlight) – South Dakota prisons struggle to prepare inmates for release, and the support systems meant to help them on the outside often fall short, according to a report from a national nonprofit.
The assessment found consistent gaps in support, employment, housing and mental health and addiction treatment for people leaving prison. It also found the state lacks the data and oversight structure needed to track and improve outcomes.
The state paid the Council of State Governments Justice Center $160,000 to study reentry on behalf of the Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force, which met Wednesday in Rapid City.
Ryan Brunner, senior policy adviser for the governor, speaks during the state Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force meeting in Sioux Falls on Oct. 29, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Gov. Larry Rhoden created the task force to study ways of reducing repeat offense rates and improving rehabilitation programming. The task force came on the heels of a legislative vote to replace the oldest parts of the state penitentiary with a $650 million men’s prison in Sioux Falls, which is under construction. The state opened a new $87 million prison for women in Rapid City this summer, the state’s second for female inmates.
South Dakota’s recidivism rate is 50%, meaning half of all inmates released from state prison return within three years.
Ryan Brunner, senior policy adviser for Rhoden, told lawmakers at the meeting that the report will help guide the expansion and operation of treatment and programming at the new prisons.
The Department of Corrections, Brunner said, “is certainly taking this data and focusing on it, and it’s good for us to have that conversation.”
System inconsistencies
When someone leaves prison, the assessment says, coordination breaks down. Access to support depends more on personal relationships between inmates, staff members and outside organizations than on formal systems, said Megan Pfeiffer, deputy policy director with the Council of State Governments Justice Center.
“There are some deep challenges here,” Pfeiffer said.
The Department of Corrections has a reentry initiative in place to help people released from prison reenter society, but the assessment found people frequently leave prison without the transition support they need. Community handoffs are inconsistent and rushed, and inmates often leave without vital documents — identification cards, Social Security cards, birth certificates — that they need to find work or access services.
More than 80% of men and 95% of women serve two years or less in prison — a “narrow window” to address rehabilitative needs, Pfeiffer said. Many inmates leave without programming — 35% of people released in 2025 hadn’t had programming, the report found. Most of those people were incarcerated for less than a year.
The assessment recommends starting reentry planning the day someone enters prison, not weeks before they leave, and says the state should create a permanent reentry council and formalize how agencies share data and coordinate services.
Employment barriers
Participation in vocational programming inside prison is low. Structured referrals to such programs and job placement services are largely absent, and the state has no data on whether people find and keep jobs after release.
Even motivated inmates who get vocational programming in prison frequently lose connection with workforce services the moment they’re released, Pfeiffer said.
“We heard that there’s often competing appointments and needs, and people get lost in the shuffle where employment isn’t prioritized as one of their primary needs,” Pfeiffer said. “Transition can take a long time to walk through the assessment and appointment process, which leaves people unemployed for a longer period of time.”
State laws also restrict where people with felony convictions can work after release.
More than 250 legal and regulatory employment barriers can be triggered by any felony conviction in South Dakota, Pfeiffer said. South Dakota is one of fewer than 15 states without “fair chance” hiring laws, which limit when employers can ask about criminal history.
Sioux Falls Republican Rep. Bobbi Andera said her “biggest concern” is putting state resources toward programming without considering how hireable people are when they’re released.
Rep. Bobbi Andera, R-Sioux Falls, speaks in the South Dakota House of Representatives on Feb. 9, 2026. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
“Programming is great, but programming is only great if they get a job,” Andera said.
A 2025 Department of Labor and Regulation survey found that 84% of South Dakota employers cite finding skilled workers as their top challenge, but only 40% said they’d hire someone with a criminal record.
The Department of Corrections trains inmates in areas such as welding, electrical work, auto service, plumbing, machining and carpentry — but those skills don’t align with the state’s most in-demand jobs, which include heavy truck drivers, sales representatives, nurses and dental assistants. The gap is especially stark in healthcare, where workforce demand is highest. State laws and regulations for healthcare, however, create more employment barriers for people with felony convictions than in any other industry.
“There’s a real gap here that we talk about as an opportunity,” Pfeiffer said. “There’s the workforce need and there’s a population that wants and needs employment.”
Brunner told lawmakers the state is exploring more employment programming options, including a five-week commercial driver’s license program and a medical technician training partnership with Western Dakota Technical College and Sanford Health. Felons can be medical technicians in South Dakota.
Behavioral health, housing needs unaddressed
About 91% of men and 97% of women in prison were diagnosed with substance use disorder upon admission, according to the 2025 Department of Corrections statistical report.
Staff can coordinate treatment referrals before release, but provider shortages, lack of transportation and fewer options in rural areas often stymie access to care for inmates upon release. The state also doesn’t have enough residential mental health space.
The assessment says the state should improve Medicaid enrollment for departing inmates and work to expand treatment access in rural and tribal areas.
Sen. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, said the assessment confirmed his belief that South Dakota shouldn’t be “punishing someone with illness,” and that the state needs to improve its mental health infrastructure as a whole.
The behavioral health aspect of rehabilitation should not be the Department of Correction’s job, he said.
“We can look at all the programs we want in recidivism and all the things within our correction system that we want — and we need to do a better job, and I think there’s a lot of things we’re going to learn — but unless we look at it holistically and from all the different departments, we’re not going to do anything,” Smith said.
Insufficient affordable housing is also one of the “greatest barriers” to successful reentry, the assessment said, and the state should prioritize housing stability for people leaving prison.
The state has some housing programs in place, but they don’t meet demand. Given employment challenges, a person earning a minimum wage would need to work 1.4 full-time jobs to afford a one-bed rental home, the report says. The gap in affordable housing options is worst in rural and tribal areas.
Lt. Gov. Tony Venhuizen chairs the task force and said the group focuses on programming within the prison system, even as the assessment revealed issues in the community that factor into recidivism.
“We’re obviously not going to solve the housing issue,” Venhuizen said. “But we can identify that as an issue and talk about some ideas for continuing work on that.”
Venhuizen said he plans to have a “good idea” of recommendations for the governor and lawmakers by their October meeting.
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