South Dakota lawmakers have agreed to replace one of the nation’s oldest prisons, a lockup that predates the state itself.
Legislators narrowly passed a bill Tuesday night in a special session to spend $650 million to build a 1,500-bed men’s prison and close a penitentiary built 140 years ago when the state was part of the Dakota Territory. It will be the most expensive taxpayer-funded project since the state’s founding in 1889.
