WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) -- After months of turmoil and searching for a new administrator, the Marathon County Jail again has a permanent leader.
Sandra La Du-Ives was selected by Marathon County to run the jail, which has been experiencing several problems that climaxed with the assault of two corrections officers by an inmate last winter.
La Du-Ives was the Deputy Administrator for Oneida County’s jail, and has spent the last eight months as their Administrator after her supervisor, Kaye Juel, died with her husband in a February house fire.
Sheriff Scott Parks says the Jail Study Committee had already assembled a master plan for the jail with goals and objectives, and he says La Du-Ives liked the plan. “We had several national candidates that elected to participate in this process, but once they received the work plan, they immediately removed their names from the process. Sandra was just the opposite. She reviewed the document and began providing positive and constructive critique immediately.”
Parks says the nationwide search led them to Le Du-Ives, who came highly recommended. “She received high recommendations from Oneida County command staff, and also from the staff of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, which oversees all jail operations in the State of Wisconsin.”
The Sheriff says the goal is to turn around a jail program that was clearly having problems into a model program.
Former administrator Jim Dickman resigned in April, about a month after corrections officer Julie Christensen was critically injured by an inmate.