South Dakota
State officials peppered with questions on price tag for new men’s prison • South Dakota Searchlight
Lawmakers expressed frustration Tuesday in Pierre over the uncertain price tag for construction and operations of a proposed men’s prison in Lincoln County.
Members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee also had pointed questions for Department of Corrections officials on alternative sites for the project, which has sparked a lawsuit from nearby neighbors and represents the most expensive taxpayer-funded capital project in state history.
“I’m just flabbergasted that we’ve not yet wrapped our arms around this as a total package,” said Rep. John Mills, R-Brookings.
Wealth of controversies, outbreaks of violence spark questions on prison oversight
Lawmakers have already dedicated more than $569 million to the project across the past two legislative sessions, including $62 million in preparatory spending. The rest sits in an incarceration construction fund.
The guaranteed maximum price for construction is expected in early November, DOC Secretary Kellie Wasko and Finance Director Brittni Skipper testified on Tuesday. That fixed price wouldn’t change, Skipper said, even if inflation or other construction costs increase.
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Jim Bolin, R-Canton, struggled to understand how a company could make such a promise.
“If you’re talking about an $800 million project, maybe more, if you make a mistake on that, you can bankrupt your whole company,” Bolin said.
Skipper told Bolin the DOC has a construction manager at-risk, JE Dunn and Henry Carlson Construction, who will build three years of projected inflation into the promised price.
“It’s in their contract to provide to us a guaranteed maximum price,” Skipper said, noting that the DOC has a similar arrangement for a new women’s prison under construction in Rapid City.
Rep. Chris Karr, R-Sioux Falls, was one of several lawmakers to push Wasko and Skipper about the potential ongoing costs associated with the prison once it’s complete. Karr and other committee members asked about prison population growth and staffing projections.
“If we’re going to make this huge investment, are we going to be able to house everybody?” Karr said.
Wasko said she doesn’t trust inmate population projections any further than five years out.
She said too many things can change, including when lawmakers create new felony crimes or toughen penalties. They did that with 2023’s “truth in sentencing” bill, which now forces those convicted for violent offenses to serve most or all of their prison terms.
“Our rate of incarceration is not slowing down. It’s actually speeding up,” Wasko said.
Even so, she said, the 1,500-bed proposal would offer the agency breathing room, as it’s designed to be a maximum-security facility capable of managing overflow from other areas of the system. The prison would take on most of the inmates now housed at the penitentiary in Sioux Falls.
Rep. Tony Venhuizen, R-Sioux Falls, said he understands that projections can change, but also said it’s important for appropriators to have a better sense of what they’re committing to.
“This could be a pretty considerable ongoing cost, and I do think at some point during the next session, we’re going to need a ballpark of what that might be,” Venhuizen said.
Skipper said the previous ballpark estimates anticipated 130 more employees and approximately $15 million in ongoing funding.
Sen. Red Dawn Foster, D-Pine Ridge, wanted to know if the DOC had consulted with the state’s Supreme Court, Unified Judicial System or Attorney General’s Office to drill down on what to expect in terms of offender population growth.
Wasko said the DOC hadn’t reached out to those agencies to talk about projections.
Opposition won’t cause state to change prison location, official says
Steve Haugaard, a Republican former lawmaker and one-time primary candidate for governor, seized upon that point during his testimony, which he offered via video feed later in the afternoon.
Haugaard argued that lawmakers were spending too much money on prisons without clear goals for managing corrections and criminal justice as a whole. Haugaard argued that “the building is going to control the overall policy,” and said policy guidance ought to come first.
Upon hearing that the DOC hadn’t consulted with the courts or attorney general, he said, “I just wonder what are we doing?” Haugaard said.
“We don’t have a corrections policy that’s firmly in place,” Haugaard said. “And from what I can see from those stats from the past 40-plus years, we didn’t respond to the ever-increasing spike in incarceration rates.”
Wasko said, as she has in the past, that South Dakota stands out from many other states for harsh penalties. But she also said that as a member of the executive branch, her responsibility is to manage an offender population, not to influence its size.
“There’s a judicial branch, the legislative branch, and I’m the executive branch, and there’s reasons for that,” Wasko said. “I would not be responsible for anything on the front end of incarceration.”
Wasko got backing on that point from Rep. Rep. Linda Duba, D-Sioux Falls, said the courts, prosecutors and lawmakers need to be proactive in criminal justice policy. She said the new facility is needed to make space for treatment and rehabilitation programs.
During another line of questioning, Karr asked about recent heavy rains and the possibility of flooding. He wanted to know if the proposed prison site is in a flood plain.
Haugaard also keyed in on flooding potential, as did Kyah Broders, one of the Lincoln County residents suing the DOC over its site selection process.
The area did see several road closures during the heavy rains, she said Tuesday.
“Adding sewage ponds and tons of concrete will only compound this issue in the future,” she said.
Skipper said the site is not in a flood plain. She showed the committee a photo of the land shortly after the historic June rainfall that wreaked havoc on communities in southeast South Dakota.
“You can see from those photos that there was minimal water damage to the site, without any soil being moved or anything being done,” Skipper said.
In response to an email about the rainfall, DOC spokesman Michael Winder sent the photos shown to the lawmakers and wrote that the project’s civil engineer “will prepare the design for watershed from the property that would include any stormwater runoff.”
Bolin asked what might happen if Broders and her fellow prison site opponents succeed in forcing the state to apply for a county zoning permit and the county refuses to grant one.
“We do not have a valid or developed plan B if that ruling does not come through for us,” Wasko said.
Bolin, who is not returning to Pierre for the next legislative session, closed out the prison site update portion of Tuesday’s meeting by returning to the influence harsh penalties have on prison populations.
Bills meant to get tough on crime and “lock them up and throw away the key” have appeared in nearly all of his 16 years in Pierre, Bolin said.
For future lawmakers, he said, “If you really believe that, you’ve also got to be prepared to pay the bill.”
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South Dakota
South Dakota man whose life sentence was commuted by Noem now implicated in his niece’s death
Two men, including one whose life sentence was commuted by then-South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, have been charged in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose body was found in a rural area five days after she went missing in March.
McKenna Wendel was reported missing March 13 and last seen alive in her hometown of Sioux Falls early on March 14. Her body was found outside Brookings, an hour’s drive north of Sioux Falls, on March 19.
Wendel’s uncle, Mark Milk, 51, also of Sioux Falls, now faces five counts related to her death. Milk was almost three decades into a life term on a manslaughter conviction when Noem commuted his sentence in 2023.
Wendel was raised by her grandparents, loved animals and had a “vibrant personality and a zest for life,” according to her obituary. She and her grandparents were Rosebud Sioux Tribe members and attended powwows often.
“She loved the singing and the beautiful sounds of the drums,” her obituary read.
Details about Wendel’s death remained thin as authorities who announced the charges in a Sioux City, Iowa, news conference Thursday kept close what they knew to protect their investigation.
Authorities have said an autopsy was done, but the findings have not been released. The cause and manner of Wendel’s death would not be released yet per Justice Department policy, said Leif Olson, U.S. attorney for northern Iowa.
Milk faces five counts including possession with intent to deliver cocaine that caused Wendel’s death. He is also charged with transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, according to court documents.
Jon Rogness, 38, of Brookings faces conspiracy and accessory charges in an alleged attempt to cover up the crimes. The counts against the men were the “most serious, readily provable” charges and all originated in Iowa, Olson said.
“This is a horrific case,” FBI special agent Gene Kowel said. “There are no cases that we investigate that are more heart-wrenching and more tragic than the ones that involve children or the death of a child.”
Court records showed no lawyers listed for Milk and Rogness, and no relatives could immediately be located through phone records and social media to speak on their behalf.
In February 2023, Noem commuted Milk’s life sentence for a manslaughter conviction in an October 1993 stabbing death. Milk, then 19, had been involved in several altercations in the city of Winner that ended with the death of Shawn Peneaux, according to records.
Milk was in jail on unrelated allegations of driving under the influence and eluding police when Wendel’s body was found. His name came up in public discussion about the case from the start. But prosecutors, who finished their investigation in late May, did not formally link him to Wendel’s death until filing charges Wednesday.
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a late March news conference the decision to commute Milk’s life sentence was strictly Noem’s.
“It is fairly often that you see law enforcement oppose commutations,” Jackley remarked without commenting further on Noem’s decision.
The commutation documents were sealed and even he had not seen them, he noted.
The Associated Press left a message Thursday for Noem on seeking comment through NovaRed Mining, a Canadian firm she recently joined in a “strategic advisory role.”
A Republican, Noem, 54, was South Dakota’s lone congressperson from 2011 to 2019 and governor from 2019 to 2025. She was Homeland Security secretary before being fired in March by President Donald Trump amid criticism of her handling of the administration’s immigration crackdown and disaster response.
Trump praised Noem’s leadership and said he was making her special envoy for “The Shield of the Americas.” The new organization of Western Hemisphere nations is focused on supporting democracy and security in the region.
___
Gruver reported from Fort Collins, Colorado, and Billeaud from Phoenix, Arizona.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Bruno Calfa and his wife loaded their two dogs into an RV for a cross-country journey that started from Vancouver, Canada, and included a stop at Falls Park.
“We were passing by, and we were just like Googling what the things we must see when we are around and then we heard about the falls, and we just came to check it out,” Calfa said.
Calfa was impressed by the Sioux Falls scenery. But navigating a visit to Mount Rushmore was more challenging.
“We missed the four heads of the presidents. I should have turned left, I turned right, and got stuck in between bison for about 20-minutes. So they’re just liking the RV, checking the tires. It was interesting with two pups in the car,” Calfa said.
Seeing the country during a milestone anniversary is a family tradition for many visitors to South Dakota.
“When it was the 200th anniversary, I remember that one when we were kids. We’ve always taken road trips with our family, so that’s what we like to do, we like to drive,” Sasha Wilmes of St. Louis said.
Walking is good, too. We found these couples checking out the sites in downtown Sioux Falls.
“Yesterday, we did the southern part of the Phillips Avenue SculptureWalk, and that was great. Really nice shops. We both grew up in central Illinois, and it reminds me a lot of some of the towns in central Illinois,” Dave Massanari of Shapleigh, ME, said.
These first-time visitors shared their first impressions of South Dakota.
“It’s pretty flat, so far, on this end of South Dakota. It’s the old sea bottom, right,” Bruce Bagley of Overland Park, KS said.
The people we spoke with say there’s something about seeing America, and South Dakota in particular, from behind the wheel of a car, that you just don’t get flying in a plane from airport to airport.
“It’s a better view than from 30,000 feet. It’s much more interesting, you see different types of buildings and architecture and geography, much better than you would from the air,” Bagley said.
“You can just experience the landscape. You can stop when you want to if you see something interesting, you can get out,” Corinna Warren of Omaha, NE said.
The Great American Road Trip promotion is expected to draw more visitors to South Dakota during the crucial summer tourism season.
“Fingers are crossed that we’re going to have a better year than we did last year. Last year was a little flat. So we’re really hoping that our numbers are going to go up,” Experience Sioux Falls CEO Teri Schmidt said.
Visitors to the state say they haven’t been sidetracked by high gas prices or inflation.
“We kind of had that planned ahead of time, and we are going, so we have a Vrbo, we have a home base, and then we’re going to go out to different places from there. So that’s kind of how we’re going to do it. So we travel pretty economically anyway, so it’s fine,” Wilmes said.
“Some people have said we’re going to travel anyway, regardless of gas prices. Others have said we’re going to go on a 5-day trip, not a 10-day trip. And if they go on those shorter trips, Sioux Falls is perfect for that,” Schmidt said.
That’s why visitors from as far away as Canada are willing to go the extra mile and then some to come here.
“Most of the time, you hear about the East and the West, California, New York, or Florida. But you don’t really get to know the middle of the country. But there are so many beautiful places,” Calfa said.
And travelers say there’s no better time to soak in all that scenery than during America’s 250th anniversary.
“We grew up in the East, where it all began, where the Revolution was taking place, and there are historical markers everywhere,” said Anne Bagley of Overland Park, KS.
The nation’s past provides a roadmap to the present and future whenever people pull off and explore the vistas along their journey.
The South Dakota Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at June 17, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from June 17 drawing
03-26-49-53-61, Powerball: 12, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Lotto America numbers from June 17 drawing
11-16-18-33-51, Star Ball: 09, ASB: 05
Check Lotto America payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Dakota Cash numbers from June 17 drawing
08-11-12-25-26
Check Dakota Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from June 17 drawing
02-04-07-16-21, Bonus: 03
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your prize
- Prizes of $100 or less: Can be claimed at any South Dakota Lottery retailer.
- Prizes of $101 or more: Must be claimed from the Lottery. By mail, send a claim form and a signed winning ticket to the Lottery at 711 E. Wells Avenue, Pierre, SD 57501.
- Any jackpot-winning ticket for Dakota Cash or Lotto America, top prize-winning ticket for Lucky for Life, or for the second prizes for Powerball and Mega Millions must be presented in person at a Lottery office. A jackpot-winning Powerball or Mega Millions ticket must be presented in person at the Lottery office in Pierre.
When are the South Dakota Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky for Life: 9:38 p.m. CT daily.
- Lotto America: 9:15 p.m. CT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Dakota Cash: 9 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 10:15 p.m. CT daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a South Dakota editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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