Order restored after ‘disturbance’
DOC Secretary releases statement with few details
Multiple agencies responded to what state officials are calling a “disturbance” Wednesday evening at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, but exactly what the situation was remains unclear.
A dispatcher with Metro Communications, which handles all dispatch services for the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, the Sioux Falls Police Department, Sioux Falls Fire Rescute and EMS, forwarded the Argus Leader to the South Dakota Highway Patrol, which the dispatcher said was overseeing the response. But a spokesperson for the Highway Patrol was not immediately available to confirm more.
Officials with the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office were also not immediately available to explain more.
The South Dakota Depatment of Corrections oversees the state penitentiary’s operations. At 8:30 p.m., DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko released the following statement:
“Order has been restored at the South Dakota State Penitentiary. After a disturbance, which included a staff assault, the response followed established protocol and was conducted professionally, swiftly, and thoroughly. Thank you to our corrections officers for doing an outstanding job to safely resolve the situation.”
The statement did not include more detail and did not answer questions about the severity of the assault, how many agencies may have responded or what may have caused the disturbance. The statement did not also include whether the incident would trigger any sort of outside investigation.
The Argus Leader has reached out to Wasko and Gov. Kristi Noem’s office for more information. A spokesperson with the Governor’s Office referred media to Wasko’s statement.
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‘The prisoners are pissed.’
Noelle Morgan, whose partner is inside the facility, said Wednesday night she believed the disturbance was tied to the state’s recent and indefinite suspension of tablet use for inmates at the penitentiary.
Last week, the DOC suspended tablet usage and texting and email services for inmates with no definitive end date as part of what was described an ongoing investigation, South Dakota Searchlight reported.
The tablets, offered at no cost to the state by a private company contracted with the DOC for inmate telephone services, are something the inmates must pay to use, South Dakota Searchlight reported. They offer services like the ability to send messages, make phone calls, listen to music and more, including the ability to research or take courses online, the nonprofit news outlet reported.
But access to things like using a certain website or mobile app used to communicate with family and friends stopped about two weeks ago, and now the use of a landline is the only option, the news outlet reported. That can often involve long wait times or the frustration of talking over other inmates in loud common areas, South Dakota Searchlight reported.
Morgan was supposed to have a phone call with her boyfriend at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, she said.
“I knew something was wrong, because he always calls right on time,” Morgan said. “I never heard from him, so I knew something was wrong. Then, his mom reached out and told me about the riots.”
She alleged similar, smaller incidents had occured within the last week, in which some instances ended with visitations being cut short and inmates being placed on lockdown status without access to recreation time.
“They had a riot because of the tablets being down,” Morgan said. “And it got to the point where they were refusing to go in their cells, and they got to the point of, I know, guards bringing out shotguns and stuff, and eventually they stopped rioting.”
The Argus Leader has not yet been able to confirm these smaller instances or whether shotguns were present. DOC officials and officials with Noem’s office did not immediately return answers to follow-up questions about whether Wednesday’s ‘disturbance’ was a riot and whether the incident was directly tied to the ongoing suspension and investigation of tablet use.
Morgan says her partner, however, has mentioned how upset inmates have been at the suspension.
“He kind of tries to stay out of getting in trouble and things like that,” she said. “He mentioned before, you know, that people are really upset... The prisoners are pissed. Like they’re just really upset. So he has mentioned like,’ I hope they turn it back on soon,’ like, ‘I’m not sure what’s going to happen.’”
That tablet suspension coupled with lockdowns, time without rec, a lack of time outside of their cells and no time to shower, is putting inmates on edge, she alleged.
“They’re just they’re making them crazy,” she said. “Like they’re driving them crazy, and a lot of them are in there because they made a stupid mistake. Some of them aren’t bad people, and so it’s difficult for them to process and to deal with it when they’re like, ‘Why is this happening? Like I’m not even allowed out shower. I’m not allowed out to eat. I’m not getting out for rec. I can’t call my family.’ And it’s kind of been boiling up for the past couple of weeks.”
Morgan’s boyfriend has been in the state penitentiary for manslaughter since 2019, she said. She said she hopes answers are provided soon to the situation. The Argus Leader is not releasing the inmate’s name for the safety of the inmate and because it’s unclear whether Morgan’s partner had any direct connection to Wednesday’s incident.
Tony Mangan, the spokesperson for the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, said as of about 7:30 p.m. the Division of Criminal Investigation, which oversees investigations involving law enforcement across the state, was not yet involved.
Argus Leader visual journalist Samantha Laurey was on scene Wednesday night. As of 7:30 p.m., she said there was no current presence of other law enforcement agencies, but she could hear “yelling, screaming and banging” from inside the pen while she was outside until about 8:30 p.m.
A call at the location on the Sioux Falls Police Department’s 30-day call log simply states “suspicious activity” at about 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Recent controversies at the state penitentiary
The state pen has been in existence since 1881, and is at the start of being relocated to Lincoln County, after the state purchased property earlier this year. The multi-million decision spurred naysayers in Lincoln County to file a lawsuit against the state in hopes of stopping the move and urging for more transparency around the decision. The state asked for the case to be dismissed.
State officials and lawmakers spent more than two years trying to decide how to overhaul the outdated facility. The new facility will be on 300 acres and is anticipated to have 1,500 beds.
And in the last three years, the DOC and state pen have also seen an administrative overhaul by Noem. An investigation into the DOC during the spring of 2021 regarding allegations of sexual harassment misconduct and nepotism led to the firings of former DOC Secretary Mike Leidholt and then-state penitentiary Warden Darin Young.
Wasko was named to the role in March 2022, with a background of 22 years of experience in adult and juvenile correction, after Leidholt was placed on administrative leave and took early retirement from his position amid the controversy.
She stepped in at a time when more than a quarter of correctional officer positions within the DOC were unfullfilled and worked with state officials to increase starting wages to get more people to apply.
Wasko, though, was recently under fire herself when penitentiary staff sent a letter in early January to Noem urging for Wasko’s removal.
The letter, obtained by the Argus Leader in a public records request, addressed collective concerns staff shared regarding numerous policy changes in the prison and the consequences of those changes since Wasko was named to the position.
The letter, about the length of one page, discussed the “safety, efficiency and morale” within the correctional facility because of the recent policy changes.
But as of late January, no state agency had taken up the complaint to investigate further.
It’s unclear if Wednesday’s incident might be tied to any issues beyond the tablet suspension.