Yankton County Penitentiary

*"It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside it's jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats it's highest citizens, but it's lowest ones." - Nelson Mandela*

The **Yankton County Penitentiary (Y.C.P.)** is a county prison located near Joint Air-Base Sioux. Constructed in the 1980s under the authority of Governor George Mickelson, the Y.C.P. was created with the intentions of housing felons who had been convicted of serious crimes in the city of Yankton and the local towns that surrounded the Missouri River. Following a series of riots which saw the prison being depleted of its former occupants, a series of situations occurred which led to the **Federal Emergency Management Agency (F.E.M.A.)** securing the prison for itself in 2003.

Built in the year of 1989, the Yankton County Penitentiary would be staffed by Corrections Officers from across South Dakota, alongside a temporary unit of **South Dakota Highway Patrol (S.D.H.P.) officers. T**he unit of S.D.H.P. officers would be decommissioned once enough Corrections staff had been hired to uphold the prison in the year of 1990. Following the withdrawal of the S.D.H.P., the Y.C.P. began intaking felons and prisoners who had been convicted all across the county; inside the jail, the prisoners would be forced to don blue jumpsuits with distinct numbers imprinted on the rear of the back. Following this, mugshots would be collected of each prisoner, and archived for safekeeping in case a prisoner ever managed to escape the confines of the prison. As time progressed, relations between prisoners and staff began to deteriorate as more violent situations broke out within the walls of the penitentiary. One account from the year of 1999 describes a prisoner, armed with a syringe, murdering a nurse, and injuring a Corrections Officer before he was shot dead inside of the cafeteria. More situations like these would unfold, with many prisoners collectivizing and sowing the seeds for the creation of prison gangs in the future. In the year of 2001, with the PAX-13 plight in full swing, anything resembling order fell apart at the seams subsequently after an unknown vehicle exploded in the parking lot of the prison, inducing mass hysteria and leading to panic all across the prison. In the moments that followed the detonation of the vehicle, the gangs of prisoners, who had formed with the sole intention of bringing destruction to those who opposed them, began brutally crushing any opposition they could while they had the chance. During a twelve hour scuffle, around two hundred prisoners and over thirty Corrections Officers clashed throughout the prison, leading to around twenty five deaths, and over one hundred injuries; what unfurled at the scenes of this massacre was nothing short of nightmarish. After the gangs descended upon the guards and their fellow prisoners, the power grid to the Y.C.P. was abruptly shut off, leading to all lights within the prison being switched off permanently until the power grid could be fixed once again. With this unforeseen situation now falling into the hands of the remaining Corrections Officers, they did whatever they could to contain most of the rioting prisoners to **Cell Block A**, but failed miserably. Amid the brutal melee between the prisoners and riot guards, a fire would be sparked, leading to a Corrections cruiser being damaged, and many other officers wounded. As the brawls raged on, the remaining Y.C.P. Corrections staff fled the prison, taking whatever weaponry they could with them before vacating the area- as a result of their actions, the remaining civilian work-force present at the prison would be slaughtered, though some were spared by the charismatic gang leaders who dominated the penitentiary. With the prison secured by criminals and felons, the brigands began picking apart and scrapping whatever they could, before many of the gangs set out to exploit the lack of police resistance in the area, something which would become common following the outbreak of PAX-13. Despite claiming the prison for themselves, many of the gangs and bands of lawbreakers would flee towards the neighboring towns of **Crofton, Oakwood, and the city of Yankton.**

The seeds that had been sown all those years ago in 1999 flourished, resulting in the formation of larger gangs whose prominence stretched into Yankton. These years of strife, amid the great calamity happening across the United States, led to gang wars which caused more than enough chaos within the calm streets of Yankton City. Gangs such as the **Red Fangs** would be reinforced by prisoners and felons who had recently escaped the penitentiary, and other criminal organizations, composed of criminals from the Y.C.P., would also compete in the streets for power and dominance. Despite the fact that despotic criminal organizations ruled over the backwater alleys and streets of Yankton, efforts would still be made to round up the criminals who populated the streets of the quiet city. Fortunately, these efforts would frequently pay off, resulting in victories against the criminal organizations present inside of Yankton- as a result of their well-earned victories, the **U.S.A.F.** would erect a wall across southern Yankton with money captured from the criminal organizations that prowled the streets. Not only would this wall serve as the bulwark against the undead menace, but it would also serve as the bastion to protect all who were innocent from a greater evil which still roamed the land.

Now, in 2003, with the lands set ablaze by warfare, crime, and injustice, the old prison has been taken over by an agency which once preached stability and purity; this agency, kicked out of it’s old holdings within the local Joint Air Base, has taken residence within the old penitentiary, claiming it as their own. This organization was known as F.E.M.A., and with a location such as the prison, it’s decrepit halls would be renovated to fit the standards of a government installation. What F.E.M.A. intends to do with the Y.C.P. is unknown, but many are certain that the prison has been turned into a black-site for the government’s worst prisoners.

*Written by soildeath35*