SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – Inmates in South Dakota’s prison system will be allowed to use tablets to communicate starting Friday, April 5. 

On Thursday, the South Dakota Department of Corrections posted a memo from Amber Pirraglia, the director of prisons, saying calls will be reinstated on tablets at all facilities starting April 5th. 

“After discussion with the executive team and to promote offender communication with family and loved ones, the number of phone calls per day will be limited to five,” the memo posted on the DOC website said. 

The phone calls are limited to 20 minutes in length and calls can be made on the tablet or the wall phones. 

This decision comes after the DOC stopped tablet communication on March 8 for the purpose of an investigation. 

Gov. Kristi Noem said in an interview some inmates were using the tablets for “nefarious reasons” and that’s what has prompted an investigation and study if it is possible to give the tablets back to inmates. 

“They were not being used, in all situations, to just contact home. They were being used for other purposes that were not good and not legal,” Noem said in a South Dakota Broadcasters Association interview. 

There were reports of what DOC officials called an “disturbance” at the State Penitentiary last week. In a news release, Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko announced “order has been restored” and Noem confirmed there was an injury to at least one correctional officer. 

Noem said she and state lawmakers are working on funding and building a new men’s prison, planned to be built in rural Lincoln County. 

“This facility is old. It’s even older than the state of South Dakota,” Noem said. “We can build a safer prison that can handle these types of situations better.”