(Sioux Falls, SD) — Tablet-based phone calls may be returning to the South Dakota State Penitentiary. This comes after the two disturbances involving inmates were reported at the facility last week. The state Department of Corrections released a staff memo Sunday that said tablet-based phone calls could come back, but text and photo messaging will remain suspended indefinitely. Director of prisons Amber Pirraglia says new guidelines will be in place which would limit inmates to “three phone calls a day, each no longer than 20 minutes, using either tablets or the wall phones.” However, inmates and their families are still questioning the reasoning for the new guidelines because the DOC hasn’t been clear on why the phone calls were suspended in the first place.
