Prison official fired by governor says she was not told why

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A former South Dakota prison official who was recently fired by Gov. Kristi Noem says she wasn’t told why she was dismissed. Jennifer Dreiske, the former deputy warden at the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, had worked at the Department of Corrections for 19 years until Noem announced Thursday that she was being fired along with the prison’s warden, Darin Young. The Department of Human Services had been investigating an anonymous complaint that alleged that supervising corrections officers regularly sexually harassed their colleagues, that employee morale was low and that promotions were plagued by nepotism. Dreiske said Tuesday in a statement on Facebook that she “never wavered” in her duties but that she was fired without an explanation.