A high-risk inmate is leaving prison this week after 11 years. Leaders with the South Dakota Department of Corrections say the prisoner has a violent record and did not follow rules while serving time, but his sentence has expired.
Michael Ontiveros leaves prison Wednesday after completing time for multiple burglaries in Hughes and Walworth counties. The 47-year-old man is a registered sex offender with a history of attempted sexual assault, kidnapping, escape, and grand theft.
South Dakota Department of Corrections leaders use assessments to determine potential danger an inmate poses to the community. Secretary Denny Kaemingk says Ontiveros is high-risk.
"He has a troubling criminal history in Arizona and South Dakota. He was a very non-compliant inmate, had a great deal of major rule infractions to include assault and sexual abuse. He was not amenable to programming – either he did not participate or he did not apply himself, and also he’s being released from restrictive housing," Kaemingk says.
Officials say Ontiveros plans to live near Eagle Butte. Kaemingk says Ontiveros has finished his sentence, and corrections officials have no jurisdiction to supervise him.
"There are a lot of tools available to offenders who come into prison as far as programming as far as encouragement and education," Kaemingk says. "And most offenders take advantage of those opportunities to better themselves when they go back to the street, but Ontiveros certainly did not."
Kaemingk says more than 2,000 inmates leave Department of Corrections custody each year. The department notifies local law enforcement of all releases. In the past five years, corrections officials have alerted the public to seven high-risk inmates leaving prison and one release of a high-profile inmate.