Former Mike Durfee inmates speak on July violence at prison

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Former Mike Durfee State Prison inmates Michael and Joey are sharing their perspectives on the July violence at the Springfield, S.D. prison .

Michael and Joey, who are now out on parole, were inmates at the facility during the violence. Since the duo is afraid of retaliation, KELOLAND News agreed not to share their last names or show their faces. The South Dakota Department of Corrections says fighting among inmates in Springfield on July 9 and July 10 left inmates and staff members hurt, with none of the injuries life-threatening.

“Seen a guy get stabbed with a, looked like either a mop handle or a broomstick,” Michael said.

“It just started to break out with a lot of violent acts such as people getting beaten, stomped, pulled out of their bunks and objects being thrown at them,” Joey said.

“They chased them into our housing unit, and it was like 20 to 30 on one, just stomping all these guys out, and they had already beat these guys up once,” Michael said.

South Dakota Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko told state lawmakers in late July in Pierre that the construction of a new men’s prison planned for Lincoln County will mean a safer number of inmates in Springfield, which is currently over capacity.

“We’ll decrease Durfee so that they are at a safe and manageable capacity with the physical plant that they have,” Wasko said on July 30. “We’ll decrease Rapid City. It’s going to stabilize all of the facilities within the state.”

The latest available inmate population statistics on the DOC’s website say that as of late May, 1,227 inmates were in Springfield . Wasko herself says that’s not acceptable.

“Durfee should not be housing 12 hundred inmates,” Wasko said on July 30.

The DOC used the word “fight” to describe July’s violence in Springfield. Joey describes it another way.

“I believe it’s more gang-related violence, but a more accurate description would be a war, a gang war in my opinion, because of how extreme the violence got at points,” Joey said.

KELOLAND’s Dan Santella also spoke Monday with a woman whose husband is an inmate at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls. He’s scheduled for a transfer to the Mike Durfee State Prison, and she says she’s “terrified for him.”

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