On Tuesday, Governor Larry Rhoden named the members of his new correctional rehabilitation task force. Here’s the full roster of 30 South Dakotans tasked with figuring out how to set prisoners on a path that leads away from prison, with asterisks by nine members who served on the prison task force:
- Lt. Governor Tony Venhuizen, Chair*
- Mayor of Sioux Falls Paul TenHaken
- Judge Pat Pardy, Third Judicial Circuit
- Senate President Pro Tempore Chris Karr, R-District 11*
- Senator Tamara Grove, R-District 26
- Senator Joy Hohn, R-District 9*
- Senator Paul Miskimins, R-District 20
- Senator Ernie Otten, R-District 6*
- Senator Sue Peterson, R-District 13
- Senator Jamie Smith, D-District 15*
- Representative John Hughes, R-District 13
- Representative Greg Jamison, R-District 12*
- Representative Chris Kassin, R-District 17
- Representative Brian Mulder, R-District 11*
- Representative Tim Reisch, R-District 8*
- Representative Tesa Schwans, R-District 9
- Representative Eric Emery, D-District 26A
- Representative Kadyn Wittman, D-District 15
- Minnehaha County State’s Attorney Daniel Haggar*
- Pennington County Sheriff Brian Mueller
- Southeast Technical College President Cory Clasemann
- Minnehaha County Jail Warden Mike Mattson
- State Court Administrator Greg Sattizahn
- Sioux Falls City Council member Rich Merkouris
- Founder of I.Am.Legacy Erik Brings White
- CEO of Great Plains Tribal Leader’s Health Board Jerilyn Church
- Executive Director of SD Council of Mental Health Centers Terry Dosch
- Sioux Falls School Board Member Dawn Marie Johnson
- Secretary of Labor and Regulation Marcia Hultman
- Department of Corrections Deputy Secretary Brent Fluke
Governor Rhoden said Tuesday that he’s “a strong believer in bringing voices from broad perspectives to the table.” But he did not bring to the table any legislators who voted against his prison plan last month, some of whom shouted most loudly about the need to improve rehabilitation services. Governor Rhoden appointed two Indigenous legislators, Sen. Grove and Rep. Emery, but not Rep. Peri Pourier, whose brilliant strategy of switching to Rhoden’s party but then voting against Rhoden’s prison bill apparently did not help her gain a better position from which to voice her community’s concerns.
We might want to keep an eye on the input of Deputy Corrections Secretary Brent Fluke. Just this summer, Fluke was one of two DOC defendants whom a jury found was deliberately indifferent to health and safety of inmate Mark Christians. Evidently Rhoden feels Fluke will show no such indifference in the deliberations of the rehab task force, which Rhoden says will start this month.
I thought the prison population took a pill in 2023 and didn’t take one in 2024?
Inmate Kaleb Lukkes escaped Republican repression 23 September.
How about we address the life situations which cause criminality in people? This would save far more money for the DOC. I wonder what theory of criminal behavior which the task force follows? Without a theory, it is impossible to address the issues which lead people to lives of crime.
I don’t know much about your governor but he does some things that are good. Just the other day I looked up my brothers SDSU college roommate. This is from the mid 60s mind you. His name was Oscar Stomprud and he was from Mud Butte.
Never forgot that name or place I was a kid at that time.
Turns out your governor visited a relative of Oscar, who won the Leopold Conservation Award for South Dakota in Mud Butte.
Your governor attended the conservation award ceremony.