SOUTH DAKOTA PRISON TASK FORCE OFFERED NEW POTENTIAL CONSTRUCTION SITES

PIERRE, S.D. (John Hult / South Dakota Searchlight) – Land that Sioux Falls economic development boosters had once hoped to see anchored by a $500 million slaughterhouse is now on offer as a men’s prison site.

Also a prison site option, as of Tuesday: a hundred-plus acres of ranch land just east of Box Elder, the growing city near Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Letters offering up the Pennington County ranchland and the land near what would have been Wholestone Foods in Sioux Falls were posted on Tuesday on the Project Prison Reset task force’s website. Gov. Larry Rhoden formed the group in February to study options to address the state’s swelling correctional population after lawmakers said no to the 1,500-bed, $850 million prison the governor wanted to build in southern Lincoln County.

The task force has since rejected that Lincoln County site as an option, in spite of the state having spent about $50 million on it so far, capped the price of a new prison at $600 million, and asked Rhoden to push back the date of the planned special session of the Legislature next month at which lawmakers would be asked to sign off on a final prison plan. Rhoden agreed to the delay.

Until Tuesday, the task force’s two remaining property options for a new prison that don’t involve land already owned by the Department of Corrections were outside of Worthing and Mitchell, respectively. Citizens and some community leaders in both cities have rallied against prison construction, however.

The task force winnowed down the options to Worthing, Mitchell and existing DOC properties in Sioux Falls and Springfield from a list of more than a dozen submissions, each sent in response to a request for information a few months ago.

The state wants at least 100 acres of land for a prison, ideally within 20 miles of its existing penitentiary workforce in Sioux Falls.

Unbuilt slaughterhouse, ranch added to options list

Tuesday’s two late-arriving options came from opposite ends of the state.

Sweetman Partners of Sioux Falls sent a letter to the task force on Tuesday to inform the group that if the state wants it, the company would be happy to negotiate a sale of 137 acres of its eastern Sioux Falls property off Interstate 229.

The land is just south of what would have been a 1,000-employee hog operation. Wholestone, part of the Iowa-based, producer-owned Pipestone Cooperative, had recently aimed to open what would have been one of the largest swine butchering operations in South Dakota in that industrial park, and the company still owns the land.

Locations of the potential prison locations that remain in play, plus the location of the original rural Lincoln County site that’s been ruled out.

Sioux Falls voted down an effort to ban new slaughterhouses in the city on the 2022 ballot, but the project nonetheless fizzled. By mid-2023, Wholestone had partnered with an Iowa company to meet its production needs.

Today, Sweetman Partners is in the process of selling off smaller hunks of the property just to the south of the Wholestone land. Sweetman’s managing partner said in his Tuesday letter to the Project Prison Reset task force that he’d be “willing to sell it all to the State of South Dakota.”

“If you are interested and would like to  enter into negotiations, please let me know,” Thomas Sweetman wrote.

Sweetman told South Dakota Searchlight he got a call near the end of May from someone – he couldn’t recall who – asking him if he’d sell the land to the state for a prison. He said yes, and was told to write a letter to the lieutenant governor saying as much.

Lt. Gov. Tony Venuhizen, who leads the prison task force, emailed a copy of the resulting Sweetman letter to his fellow task force members on Tuesday. He also forwarded along the pitch from the economic development coordinator for the city of Box Elder. Both letters were posted to the Project Prison Reset task force website.

The Box Elder letter touts just under 105 acres of land owned by Gikling Ranch LLC as a workable prison option. The city of Box Elder would service the site for water and utilities, the document says, and the state could take advantage of the area’s large and growing workforce.

Box Elder has grown rapidly in recent years to meet the Air Force’s anticipated needs as it expands the base to host B-21 bombers.

“The city offers a pro-growth climate, excellent access to training and education resources, and a collaborative approach to public-private partnerships,” the letter from Box Elder’s Sean Overeynder wrote.

Any sale of the land, he said, “is subject to appropriate due diligence and additional discussion with the City of Box Elder,” and final approval would need to come from the city council.

The next Project Prison Reset task force meeting is scheduled for July 8 in Sioux Falls.

 

LEGISLATION WOULD PUT VOLUNTARY BEEF LABELING OPTIONS INTO LAW

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yet another reintroduction of federal legislation that will better identify U.S. beef is in the pipeline.

In March 2023, USDA proposed a rule which requires that the “Product of USA” or “Made in the USA” labels can only be voluntarily applied to meat, poultry and egg products that are born, raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States.

It doesn’t mandate a U.S.-origin label, but rather creates a voluntary opportunity to claim the label on products if requirements are met. This rule was finalized in March 2024 and went into effect in May 2024.

Because this is a rule issued by an executive agency, it can be revoked at any time by future administrations. Legislation reintroduced by U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) called the USA Beef Act, would permanently protect this rule by putting it into law.

Rounds has also not delayed on again pursuing MCOOL (formerly COOL) for beef. Last week he sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins asking her to develop a framework for reinstating MCOOL, a move Rounds has made under several U.S. ag secretaries.

Country-of-Origin-Labeling (COOL), first authorized in the 2002 Farm Bill and amended and implemented in the 2008 Farm Bill, was found by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to violate trade agreements made between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

The repeal of Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef, pork, and chicken was largely supported by Republicans at the time. Texas Republican Rep. Michael Conaway’s introduced legislation to repeal COOL. It was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2015. U.S. Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,led the charge to repeal COOL in the Senate. It passed in the Senate on December 15, 2015.

Rounds has again launched a nationwide effort in June 2024 to get MCOOL included in the next Farm Bill. This effort was endorsed by 26 farm and ranch groups from across the country. The effort was also co-signed by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Angus King (I-Maine), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

 

JACKLEY: GANG ACTIVITY IS PRESENT IN THE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE PENITENTIARY

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Twenty-four inmates at the South Dakota State Penitentiary are facing assault and riot charges following a May 27 fight.

The Attorney General’s announcement on Tuesday alleged that those inmates are tied to nine gangs.

In a Department of Justice report in 1985, the South Dakota Department of Corrections was among 16 states that claimed no gangs were present in their prison system.

Attorney General Marty Jackley made it clear on Tuesday that it is not the case today.

“The Boys or the TBZs, the Red Brotherhood, which is RBH, the Gangster Disciples: the GDs, the Bloods, the Crips, the Northside Mafia, the Warlords, the East River Skins, and the Vice Lords,” Jackley said.

The May 27 unrest, now legally classified as a riot, appeared to be coordinated, according to investigators.

“The charges include 24 inmates,” Jackley said.

Sources working with the DOC told Dakota News Now that there are times gangs apply pressure on prison staff. Jackley made one thing clear on Tuesday:

“There were no correction officers involved in this charging decision,” Jackley said.

A DOJ report lists the top gang activities behind bars as: intimidation, trafficking drugs, assault, extortion, or abusing weak inmates, and for members to protect each other.

Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko acknowledges the gangs’ presence, which is now commonplace in many institutions.

Gang presence and activity in prisons is not a new phenomenon. There are hundreds of gangs identified in prisons today. Staff are tasked daily with ensuring the safety and security of all offenders and using assessment tools to identify gang affiliations for safe housing.

Sec. of Corrections, Kellie Wasko, June 24, 2025

Wasko was also asked if a new prison layout would be beneficial.

Modern prisons assist in the effective management of these groups by allowing more options for separation and supervision through physical and security technologies.

Sec. of Corrections, Kellie Wasko, June 24, 2025

Nationwide, the top responses to gang activity in prison include “Bus Therapy,” relocating a leader to another facility. But studies have shown that putting a gang leader in solitary confinement is not a solution, as a new leader typically emerges to fill the void.

A source told Dakota News Now that gang recruitment at the South Dakota State Penitentiary is a real thing. Jackley vows to fight any related crime.

“It just became safer today because we’ve made it clear that the attorney general is not going to tolerate criminal activity behind the walls. That criminal activity includes drug use. That criminal activity includes gang-related activity and violence,” Jackley explained.

 

ALFREDO CASTELLANOS-ROSALES MURDER TRIAL CONCLUDES WITH GUILTY VERDICT

ELK POINT, S.D. – After a week of evidence and testimony the jury got the case on Wednesday in the murder trial of Alfredo Castellanos-Rosales.  After around two hours of deliberation they returned a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder in the 2023 stabbing death of Jordan Beardshear in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota.

Over the run of the trial 15 Union County residents heard testimony from nearly 30 people, including the defendant himself, and saw more than 100 pieces of evidence. In the end, 12 people decided that the State of South Dakota had proven that Castellanos-Rosales murdered Beardshear the night of April 23, 2023.

Under South Dakota law, Castellanos-Rosales faces a life sentence after being found guilty of first-degree murder. His sentencing is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 25, at 1 p.m.

The murder trial began at 9 a.m. on June 16, 2025, at the Union County Courthouse in Elk Point, South Dakota. Over four days, the first week, Deputy Attorney General Ernest Thompson and Assistant Attorney General Alexis Tracy walked the court through how they say Castellanos-Rosales killed 23-year-old Beardshear.

The verdict carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced.

Jordan “Jordy” Beardshear, 23, was found deceased at an apartment in Dakota Dunes on April 25, 2023. The defendant was later apprehended in Mexico.

“This verdict delivers justice to Jordan and her family,” said Attorney General Jackley. “This was a brutal and senseless act of violence and the jury’s decision affirms that the defendant will be held fully accountable. Thank you to the investigators, prosecutors, and witnesses who ensured that the truth was heard, and justice was served.”

The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Union County Sheriff’s Office, Sioux City Police Department, South Sioux City Police Department, North Sioux City Police Department and the United States Marshall’s Service investigated the case. The Attorney General’s Office prosecuted.