South Dakota to replace one of the country's oldest prisons at a cost of $650 million

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.

"Few things that we've done are as significant as what we're doing here today," Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden said before signing the bill.

South Dakota is imposing harsher criminal punishments and spending money on new criminal justice facilities at a time when Democratic-led states are pursuing more lenient policies and even closing prisons.

The state's new pr