The new Woodbury County jail is now holding inmates, after they were moved from the soon-to-be-closed downtown building site over the weekend.
That work was carried out as 210 inmates were moved by more than 100 county law enforcement personnel over 10 hours, from Friday evening to Saturday morning.
The Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center is located several miles away from downtown on 28th Street on the northeast side of Sioux City. Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan said the movement of inmates had been planned for a year, and came off with no incidents.
During the move, more than 70 jailers and 40 deputies were involved.
The facility has a cost of $70 million and had many delays in opening. It contains offices and also courtrooms, which will first be used for legal cases in early December.
The prior jail was built in 1987, and has had so many mechanical and structural problems that the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors decided that a new jail was a better route than repairs.
*Additionally, South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has brought charges against two former state employees for their alleged role in forging vehicle titles.
The charges come a month and a half after Jackley’s office said it discovered a now deceased employee forged over a dozen titles to secure almost $400,000 worth of loans.
Earlier this year, the attorney general’s office charged a former Department of Social Services employee with two felony counts of aggravated grand theft for stealing $1.8 million. That employee has pleaded not guilty.
Jackley said the state needs better anti-corruption laws, including clear whistleblower protections and the ability for the auditor to investigate misbehavior.
He is also looking for legislation for transparency in the Attorney General’s office and auditor protections. He said that included the auditor general and state treasurer.
*In other news, South Korean author Han Kang has won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature. The writer was once in residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
Kang attended the prestigious program in 1998 as a young writer.
Christopher Merrill is the program’s director.
“Her prose is very precise. It's a kind of chiseled prose, and she's the sort of writer who pays close attention to, sometimes just the most seemingly insignificant details,” Merrill said.
The Nobel Foundation officials said Kang was honored for her, quote, “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”
*The Sioux City School Board is about to begin three community meetings in order to compile input from people, as they carry out hiring a new school district superintendent.
Superintendent Rod Earleywine will retire in June 2025 after three years in the chief executive role of the Sioux City School District.
The community input sessions will be held at the three high schools, and all will begin at 6 p.m.The first will be held at East High School on Monday, October 14, and the other two will be at West and North high schools on Tuesday.
The sessions will include personnel from an executive search firm. People can also weigh in online at the website www.siouxcityschools.org.
