GOVERNOR KRISTI NOEM CALLS ON US ATTORNEY GENERAL MERRICK GARLAND TO ADDRESS LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUES ON RESERVATIONS
PIERRE, S.D. (Joshue Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – Three days after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a plan to help a Native American tribe in South Dakota reduce domestic violence, Republican Governor Kristi Noem called on the department to do more for public safety on reservations.
On Friday, the department announced the Oglala Sioux Tribe as one of 78 communities across 47 states to be designated under Section 1103 of the Violence Against Women Act. The designation means the tribe will receive focused law enforcement efforts and legal support to prosecute people convicted of domestic violence who own firearms. The initiative aims to prosecute offenders under a federal law prohibiting certain people from possessing firearms.
“Intimate partner violence involving guns presents a grave danger to victims trapped in violent relationships,” said Alison Ramsdell, U.S. attorney for the District of South Dakota, in a statement.
According to Native News Online, 911 emergency calls on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 2021 included 1,463 domestic violence calls and 522-gun related calls.
On Monday, Noem said in a news release that she sent U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland a letter asking him to “take action to address public safety on Native American reservations in South Dakota.”
Noem’s recommendations include audits of federal funds provided to South Dakota tribes; creating a “Special Assistant United States Attorney initiative” within the state to boost federal prosecutions on tribal lands; more federal support to assist tribes in investigating crime; and encouraging tribes to establish law enforcement agreements with the state.
Elected representatives of all nine tribes in the state have voted to ban Noem from their lands for remarks she made earlier this year, including her allegations that Mexican drug cartels are operating on reservations and that tribal leaders are benefiting from the activity.
Garland met with representatives of the nine tribal nations in South Dakota about their law enforcement and justice system needs on Aug. 14 in Sioux Falls and Wagner. U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, participated in the Wagner meeting. Noem was not invited.
Tribes across the state have treaty agreements that require federal law enforcement support, but the tribes have consistently reported they’re underfunded. Oglala Sioux Tribe Acting Police Chief John Pettigrew told a congressional subcommittee in May that his department is funded at 15% of its needs.
Noem, Rounds and other South Dakota officials have taken various actions this year to help improve public safety on tribal lands.
After Garland’s visit, Rounds sent a letter urging the head of a federal department to change the funding formula for tribal law enforcement, and he has also advocated for the federal government to open a tribal law enforcement training center in South Dakota.
Noem recently worked with Republican South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley to launch a new tribal-focused law enforcement training course that graduated eight recruits. Noem’s Department of Public Safety recently signed an expanded cooperative law enforcement agreement with the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, and Noem has hosted a Tribal Public Safety Crisis Summit and appointed a tribal law enforcement liaison in her office.
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE PENITENTIARY AND JAMESON ANNEX ON LOCKDOWN ACCORDING TO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The South Dakota Department of Corrections (DOC) says it will not respond to questions on why it locked down two of its three facilities on the grounds of the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
A DOC news release on the lockdown at the penitentiary and the maximum security Jameson Annex was sent after 11 p.m. Sunday. The agency doesn’t know how long the lockdown will be in effect, the release says, and all visits have been canceled aside from attorney meetings and previously scheduled and approved special visits.
Communications between inmates and their families and friends outside the facilities could also be affected.
“We will be managing phone service for offenders for the duration of the lockdown. This may include periods of phone service being disabled temporarily,” the release said.
The release goes on to say that the agency “will not be responding to further questions and inquiries during the lockdown.”
“If the release of additional information is warranted, the information will be provided on the agency website and social media channels,” it says.
The penitentiary and Jameson Annex housed 1,262 inmates as of Aug. 31, according to the DOC website. The Sioux Falls Minimum Center, a facility for low security and work release inmates, was not mentioned in the news release on the lockdown. That facility housed 238 people at the end of August.
It’s unclear how many times the penitentiary has been under lockdown so far in 2024.
There were lockdowns following two incidents of unrest in March, which ultimately resulted in indictments for several inmates and two people outside prison facilities who are accused of collaborating with inmates on illegal activity.
The March incidents followed a decision by the DOC to temporarily shut down tablet-based communications for an “ongoing investigation” that the agency has yet to explain to the public. Tablet-based phone calls returned – with 20-minute time limits and a five call daily limit – but inmates are still unable to use the tablets’ text messaging capabilities.
Mike Durfee State Prison in Springfield also saw unrest in July, with inmates injured in two separate flare-ups of inmate-on-inmate violence the DOC said injured six people.
Beyond saying the situation was under control and releasing the number of injured inmates, the DOC has not offered further details on that incident, offering only that accusations of higher injury figures and other assertions from inmates in Springfield were “inaccurate.”
“Information that is security-sensitive and/or part of an ongoing investigation will not be released,” DOC spokesman Michael Winder wrote to South Dakota Searchlight on July 29.
DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko told the state’s Government Operations and Audit Committee over the summer that she’d be willing to explain the “nitty gritty” of the incidents with lawmakers behind closed doors, but that she won’t talk about them during public meetings for security reasons.
STATE LAWMAKERS QUESTIONING FUNDS PROVIDED FOR SHOOTING RANGE NEAR RAPID CITY BY GOVERNOR NOEM
PIERRE, S.D. (Joshua Haiar / South Dakota Searchlight) – While legislators were passing a law in March requiring more information from Republican Gov. Kristi Noem about a fund she controls, Noem was awarding $13.5 million from the fund to a project legislators had declined to financially support.
Some legislators didn’t find out about the spending until this week, when South Dakota Searchlight learned about it and told them.
The money will go toward the construction of a $20 million, state-owned shooting range in a rural area north of Rapid City. The Department of Game, Fish and Parks is also counting on private fundraising to help the project.
Game, Fish and Parks spokesman Nick Harrington said in a statement that the shooting range will “attract new visitors to the state and increase opportunities for firearms-related industries to expand in South Dakota.”
The $13.5 million awarded by Noem is from the Future Fund, which is supported by a tax on employers and spent at the discretion of the governor.
Legislators have denied requests to fund the shooting range with money from the state budget. State Sen. Reynold Nesiba, D-Sioux Falls, said Noem’s decision “demonstrates the need for greater transparency and legislative oversight of the Future Fund.” He called the shooting range a “pet project” for Noem that “excites few outside her political base.”
“The Legislature has rejected this gun range project multiple times,” Nesiba said. “She is using the Future Fund to circumvent the will of the Legislature.”
Bipartisan reaction
The frustration with the governor cuts across the political aisle.
“We already killed the shooting range legislation, because they never presented a business plan. Still haven’t,” said Sen. Ryan Maher, R-Isabel. “How many people are going to run this thing? Clean the bathrooms? Pick up trash? Shell casings? They still have not answered any of that.”
Maher sponsored a bill that was adopted during last winter’s legislative session requiring the Governor’s Office to report twice per year to legislators about Future Fund spending. Noem signed that bill on March 14 — the same month, according to her Governor’s Office of Economic Development, that she authorized $13.5 million from the Future Fund for the shooting range.
Lawmakers contacted this week by South Dakota Searchlight said they have not yet received a Future Fund report as required by the new law.
Maher’s bill arose after Noem faced criticism for other uses of the fund, including $7.5 million she awarded for a workforce recruitment campaign starring herself and $2.5 million for the Governor’s Cup rodeo in Sioux Falls.
The fund is supported by a tax, described by the state as an “investment fee,” that’s collected from employers in conjunction with payroll taxes for unemployment benefits. In 2023, nearly 30,000 South Dakota employers paid $23 million into the Future Fund.
The late Gov. George Mickelson convinced lawmakers to create the Future Fund in 1987. State law says the fund must be used “for purposes related to research and economic development for the state.” The fund is held by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, but unlike other funds managed by the office, the Future Fund is not overseen by a board of citizen appointees.
A controversial range
The shooting range is being built on about 400 acres, roughly 15 miles north of Rapid City and 25 miles southeast of Sturgis. It’s expected to open in the fall of 2025 and will include areas for long-range shooting, clay target shooting and tactical training. State officials say it will host national shooting competitions.
The Department of Game, Fish and Parks initially said in 2021 that the project would cost about $9.9 million. That grew to $12 million in 2022. Then the state paused the project when calls for bids attracted only one. The project price tag had ballooned to about $20 million by the time the state broke ground in December 2023.
The department said it had received $5.1 million in pledges and donations toward the project as of April.
Some lawmakers opposing previous attempts to fund the range argued state funds should be prioritized for more pressing infrastructure needs. They also said the project should fund itself with private donations, and scale down as needed.
“Why would the state want to compete with privately owned, taxpaying enterprises?” then-Rep. Dean Wink, R-Howes, now a state senator, asked his fellow lawmakers during a House floor debate in 2022. He argued shooting sports opportunities already exist in the area, but programs to address some other public needs do not.
Some landowners near the project, including Matt Kammerer, say it’s unnecessary and will burden local governments with extra infrastructure and public safety costs.
“There are shooting ranges all around here already,” he said. “Nobody needs this.”
Shooting sports enthusiast and Second Amendment advocate King Cavalier, of Sturgis, said providing a public place to exercise gun rights is important to ensuring U.S. democracy continues. Shooting events will result in a sales tax boom, he added, making the complex a smart investment for the state.
NEW GROUP FORMS TO ADDRESS ISSUES IN THE SOUTH DAKOTA PRISON SYSTEM
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A group of South Dakotans is gathering in Sioux Falls to form a united voice. South Dakotans Impacted by Incarceration said it hopes to impact legislation and other prison policies to improve the conditions at the state prisons.
The newly formed group, which is concerned about what’s happening behind the walls of the prison for both staff and inmates, will be meeting this Thursday.
“It’s a peaceful organization. It’s a peaceful demonstration if you would because we want everyone to listen with their full chest and understand what is going on,” said founder Niemma Thasing.
The aim for the group is to get together and share information, advocate for staff or those that are in prison, and try to come up with solutions to improve the system.
“It is their truth, their understanding, which is verified by several other people. If I say that it’s happened, then it’s me saying someone told me. This is a first-hand account,” said Thasing.
Thasing said that working together can help create change.
“Know how to rise above what is happening and work as best we can to keep our loved ones okay,” said Thasing.
The meeting is about improving communication and the scenario for those who work or are spending time behind prison bars in the state of South Dakota.
“This meeting on Thursday will be a very good kickoff into starting something fabulous for the incarcerated and family members and anybody else that has felt the sting of incarceration,” said Thasing.
The meeting is free to attend at the Sioux Falls downtown public library. There’s a time of socializing starting up 4 p.m. with a forum panel meeting at 6 p.m. in Sioux Falls.
