South Dakota DOC quietly fires correctional leaders in restructuring effort
State ends employment of Director of Prisons Amber Pirraglia, Warden Joseph Roemmich, state penitentiary corrections major
The South Dakota Department of Corrections released two agency leaders and a top correctional officer with little fanfare.
DOC spokesman Michael Winder confirmed Director of Prisons Amber Pirraglia, as well as South Dakota State Penitentiary Warden Joseph Roemmich, and Cody Hanson, a correctional major who led the uniformed officers within the Sioux Falls prison, are “no longer employed” by the state in a brief email to The Dakota Scout.
Winder did not respond to specific questions asking for the rationale behind the terminations, but DOC Secretary Nick Lamb said the decision was made to realign the positions with his vision for the department in an Aug. 5 statement to The Scout.
Johnson, Rhoden camp confirm behind-the-scenes runoff alliance
Gov. Larry Rhoden’s decisive victory in South Dakota’s first-ever Republican gubernatorial runoff was aided by a previously undisclosed deployment of U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson’s political operation.
