Women’s correctional facility opens in Rapid City

RAPID CITY— State leaders gathered Friday, July 10 to celebrate the opening of South Dakota’s new Women’s Correctional Facility, a 102,750 square foot complex designed to expand treatment, education, and reentry programs for incarcerated women. Governor Larry Rhoden led the ribbon cutting alongside correctional officials, local legislators, Rapid City Mayor Jason Salamun, and members of the Rapid City Police Department.

“This facility will help us keep South Dakota strong, safe, and free,” Rhoden said. He added that the state’s investment reflects a commitment to rehabilitation. “We are committed to rehabilitation and recovery, and this new facility will help us better serve the women in our correctional system.”

The facility includes three 96 bed housing units, each built with space for group treatment and programming. One unit is dedicated entirely to a 96 bed therapeutic community focused on addressing criminal thinking and substance use disorders. A separate 12 bed Mother Infant building allows eligible mothers to remain connected to their newborns while receiving parenting support.

The facility opens as South Dakota grapples with the world’s highest rate of women’s incarceration and long standing disparities that place Native women at the center of the crisis.

According to a 2024 report from the Prison Policy Initiative, South Dakota incarcerates women at the highest rate in the world, 338 per 100,000 , a disparity that falls disproportionately on Native American women.

According to the Department of Corrections’ 2024–2025 statistical reports, Native American women make up approximately 63% of the more than 500 women incarcerated in South Dakota, despite Native people comprising only about 8.5% of the state’s population. Advocates and lawmakers have called the disparity “alarming,” pointing to long standing systemic issues in sentencing, access to treatment, and the impact of drug related offenses.

Secretary of Corrections Nick Lamb said substance use remains the primary driver of incarceration. “Ninety seven percent of the women who enter our system have a substance use disorder,” Lamb said. “This facility expands our ability to provide treatment, counseling, and life skills to help these women succeed when they return to their communities.”

For more than a decade, South Dakota was the only state in the nation to make drug ingestion, simply having a controlled substance in one’s system, a felony. Before lawmakers reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, 71 women were imprisoned with ingestion as their highest level offense, and DOC data shows that 77% of incarcerated women were serving time for non violent drug crimes, with ingestion trailing closely behind.

Because Native women are disproportionately charged with drug related offenses, tribal advocates say the ingestion law created a revolving door. Technical violations, missed appointments, failed UAs, curfew issues, or transportation barriers, remain the number one reason women return to prison. With a 66% recidivism rate among Native women, advocates estimate that well over 100 Native women currently incarcerated are there due to residual effects of the old ingestion law, even if the original felony law has since been downgraded.

To strengthen reentry opportunities, the Department of Corrections has partnered with Western Dakota Technical College to offer a one semester Business Hospitality program. DOC is also working with Sanford Health to launch a three week Patient Care Technician program aimed at preparing participants for entry level healthcare roles.

DOC officials said transfers from Pierre to the new Rapid City facility will begin next month following staff training.

(Contact Ernestine Anunkasan Hopa at editor@nativesunnews.today)

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