Secretary Denny Kaemingk •
Corrections
Denny Kaemingk was appointed Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Corrections by Governor Dennis Daugaard on April 4, 2011. The Department of Corrections manages the state's adult and juvenile correctional facilities, adult parole services, and juvenile aftercare. It has 845 employees and an annual budget of 98 million dollars.
Kaemingk served for nine years on the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He was starting his fourth year as chairman of the Parole Board when appointed as Secretary of Corrections.
Kaemingk's law enforcement career began in 1976 as a patrolman in the Mitchell, SD Police Department. He later advanced to drug detective, special investigator for the Attorney General's Office, Captain of Detectives and Communications/911 Supervisor before finally retiring from the police force in 2000. During his law enforcement career, Kaemingk was recognized as the Mitchell Jaycees Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer and Mitchell Exchange Club Outstanding Law Enforcement Officer of the Year.
He is a part-time Criminal Justice instructor at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD.
Kaemingk was the Chairman of the Abbott House Foundation, a private program that provides residential treatment services, therapeutic foster care and outpatient services to girls between the ages of 7 and 17 in Mitchell, SD. He also is Past President and Member of the Mitchell Area Safehouse Foundation, a member of the Mitchell Lions Club, Past Board Member of the South Dakota Lions Foundation and Lions Eye Bank, Coordinator of the Sight and Service Committee, Past member of the Mitchell Regional Habitat Public Relations Committee, Past Lay President of the Board of Directors of the First Reformed Church and member of the Mitchell Chamber of Commerce. He has received the Outstanding Lay Person Award from the South Dakota Pharmaceutical Association, Outstanding Young Lions Club Member Award and Lion of the Year Award and was named Melvin Jones Fellow of the International Lions Club Foundation.
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http://www.state.sd.us/corrections/corrections.html for more information about the Department of Corrections.