| DOC Announces Management Changes |
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| Management Changes |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2003
CONTACT:
Perrin Damon, 503-945-0925
The Oregon Department of Corrections announced today several promotions and reassignments to corrections management positions.
Interim Director Nick Armenakis has promoted Virginia “Ginger” Martin to assistant director for Community Corrections. Martin was formerly administrator of the division. “Ginger’s new duties acknowledge the increasingly important role community corrections fulfills in the successful reintegration of offenders into the community,” Armenakis said. Martin is a graduate of Northern Arizona University and managed alcohol and drug treatment programs before going to work for the Department of Corrections in 1993. For several of the intervening years she worked for the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice as an assistant director.
To lead the state’s prisons several new superintendent appointments and reassignments were announced as well. They are effective November 15.
Nancy Howton, assistant superintendent of Security at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville is the new superintendent of Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. Howton succeeds Superintendent Jim Bartlett who is retiring at the end of the month. Howton joined the Department of Corrections in 1985 as a correctional officer and promoted through the ranks at several prisons. She was a member of the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility startup team. She holds an associate’s degree in industrial technology with an emphasis in criminal justice from Chemeketa Community College. Before joining the DOC, Howton served four years’ active duty in the Marines.
Bill Hoefel will be Coffee Creek Correctional Facility’s new superintendent. Hoefel began his career with the Oregon Department of Corrections in May 1983 as a prison steward in the kitchen of Oregon State Penitentiary. He ultimately became the penitentiary’s Food Services manager in 1994. He held several assistant superintendent positions in both security and general services. In February 2001 he was selected as assistant superintendent of General Services, on the startup team, at Coffee Creek. He moves back to Coffee Creek from the Department of Corrections’ central office in Salem where he served since February 2003 as chief of Support Operations.
Sharon Blacketter, superintendent of Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend, will succeed Tony Santos as superintendent of Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. Blacketter has worked in corrections since 1991. Her experience covers a broad array of corrections-related disciplines including counseling, work programs, training, cognitive programs, physical plant management, budgeting, security, and education. She managed Snake River Correctional Institution’s 154-bed minimum-custody facility in Ontario. Before joining the Department of Corrections, Blacketter worked for 12 years in the administration of the Ontario school district.
Tim Causey has been appointed interim superintendent of Shutter Creek Correctional Institution. Causey joined the DOC in July 1990 and served six years as a correctional officer at Oregon State Penitentiary. In 1996, Causey transferred to Shutter Creek as a counselor. He was his union’s president and chief steward at Shutter Creek for two years. Following a job rotation as Food Services manager, Causey became Program Services manager in August 2002. He holds an associate´s degree in corrections from Chemeketa Community College in Salem, and served in the U.S. Air Force.
Michael Gower, superintendent of Santiam Correctional Institution and Mill Creek Correctional Facility, both in Salem, has been reassigned to be superintendent of Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland and South Fork Forest Camp in Tillamook. Gower joined the Department of Corrections in May after a nearly 20-year law enforcement career. Formerly an Oregon State Police lieutenant and station commander of the Capitol Mall Patrol Office, Gower’s affiliation with corrections reaches back many years after working with the department on investigations and other projects that gave him a solid understanding of the DOC. He holds a bachelor´s degree in sociology from North Adams State College and a certificate in public safety management from the Mark Hatfield School of Government.
Frank Thompson, superintendent of Columbia River and South Fork, will take the helm of Santiam Correctional Institution and Mill Creek Correctional Facility. Thompson has been with the Department of Corrections since 1994 and has served in a number of capacities. He is expected to draw on his experience as director of the Little Rock (Arkansas) Jobs Corps Center in helping inmates successfully transition to freedom.
“The field of corrections offers many career opportunities for people who understand that public safety includes not only incarceration, but returning people to the community as productive, tax-paying citizens,” Director Armenakis pointed out. “We are fortunate to have talent within our organization upon which to draw, all of whom are people who have embraced the mission and vision of the department to reduce the risk of future criminal behavior.”
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