A new source of tuition aid
For five years, Southeast Tech's welding program has allowed inmates to leave the Sioux Falls prison campus for training in the community. Grants administered by the South Dakota Department of Labor covered their tuition until that funding was exhausted this fall.
College President Corey Clasemann said the school received approval within the past month to offer programming eligible for Second Chance Pell Grants. He announced the approval at last week's Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force meeting, where he serves as a member.
To establish eligibility, prospective students must complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, "just like any other student," Clasemann said. Incarcerated applicants must submit the paper form rather than apply online. January's welding class will be the program's first cohort funded through Pell Grants.
Pell Grants help students pay for postsecondary education. A September 2025 brief from Ithaka S+R explains that the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020 reversed a nearly 30-year ban on Pell eligibility for incarcerated students. Congress reinstated eligibility effective July 1, 2023, with participation limited to students enrolled in federally recognized Prison Education Programs.
That restoration followed an earlier experiment. According to the same brief, the U.S. Department of Education invited 200 programs into its Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative between 2016 and 2022, representing more than 40,000 incarcerated students.
Diesel training and a planned prison campus
Southeast Tech is preparing a diesel mechanic program at the penitentiary's Jameson Annex, where eligible students will also be able to use Pell Grants. The first courses are scheduled for next August.
Gov. Larry Rhoden awarded the college $1.5 million last year to help establish that program. The grant came from the Future Fund, which collects fees from South Dakota employers when they remit payroll and unemployment taxes.
The college also intends to open a satellite campus at the $650 million men's prison under construction in Sioux Falls. The new facility will replace the oldest portions of the 144-year-old penitentiary, while Jameson, South Dakota's only maximum-security facility, will stay open.
Correctional News reports that the new prison is planned as a 1,500-bed facility, including 1,188 cell beds and 300 dorm beds. It will provide three times the vocational training space available at the current penitentiary, with construction expected to finish in 2029.
Other colleges offer prison training
The approval makes Southeast Tech the third South Dakota technical school eligible to offer Second Chance Pell programming. In Rapid City, Western Dakota Technical College teaches plumbing to men at the state's minimum-security prison and hospitality to inmates at the new women's prison.
The women's facility was completed on July 10, 2026, according to Correctional News. The $87 million prison has 300 beds and a Level III security designation. Its partnership with Western Dakota provides a one-semester business hospitality program; a separate partnership with Sanford Health calls for a three-week patient care technician program that is still planned.
Training within a broader rehabilitation effort
The Correctional Rehabilitation Task Force has tentatively backed Pell-funded skills training as one element of a 34-point rehabilitation package. The recommendations are due to be compiled and voted on next month, with the aim of reducing repeat offenses. Half of the people released from South Dakota prisons return within three years.
At the panel's Oct. 29 meeting, Minnehaha County State's Attorney Daniel Haggar said 90% of inmates released in South Dakota during 2025 had served less than seven years, KELO-AM reported. The station also reported that, as of the meeting, 54 parole officers were supervising more than 3,150 parolees statewide.
