News - 2006
Casper Re-Entry Center Welcomes First Woman Director
Casper, Wyoming, Apr 6, 2006 - The Casper Journal by Wyoma Groenenberg
In what could seem to be an unlikely shift, women are taking the helm at prisons and correctional institutions across the nation.
Wyoming already had two women wardens working for the Department of Corrections (DOC) when Lisa Graham started as director of the privately owned Casper Re-entry Center (CRC).
The therapeutic treatment facility is located west of town, next to the Community Alternatives of Casper.
Nola Blackburn is the warden at the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk, and Dawn Sides heads the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton.
Graham is the first woman director at the CRC, which is managed by Community Education Centers (CEC) and funded through the Wyoming DOC. She has 15 years of experience in the field.
She started with CEC in security, did supervisory work in case management and was a deputy director before leaving that company to become a contract monitor with the DOC. CEC recruited her back for this position, which is her first as a director.
"We're going to maintain and continue to run an orderly facility.... Our vision, as far as we're concerned, is to put out the best resident we can so they go back to their communities, their families, their children as better people," she said.
According to Art Leonardo, director of the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents, in an e-mail last week, "Women head many (correctional) departments."
He listed women wardens in Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts, Arizona and Connecticut, "just to name a few that roll off my memory. Also, private corrections (facilities have) a number of women in very high profile jobs," Leonardo explained.
Graham said when she walks through the facility, which houses about 100 male inmates from the state prison, honor farms or boot camp, they are polite and show her respect. She also oversees about 70 staff members in a variety of jobs.
Teamwork
One of Graham's two deputy directors is a woman. Helen Norcross is in charge of the work release program, while Jim Piro heads up the therapeutic community.
Piro moved to Casper to head the therapeutic community 1-1/2 years ago. He was asked by the recently retired director, Gary Starbuck, to lead the work release program for a while and recently just moved back to his original job.
He has no problems working with women as bosses or colleagues.
"This is probably within my realm," he said, noting that they were just joking about this aspect the other day. "I go home to four women (wife and three daughters). I'm used to being around women.
"As long as people are qualified, and Miss Graham is very qualified to be the director of this program," Piro said. "She's a leader and I respect her."
According to Norcross on being a female deputy director, "I think that I get respect just as well as a male."
Although Norcross started her new position on March 1, she's been involved with the program for four years, working her way through the ranks.
"We work as a team; it's an exciting place to work," she said.
Piro echoed Norcross, saying, "...We rehabilitate the population that most people give up on, and I think that's a really important job... We want them to go out into society and be a whole human being again."
Graham lauded Casper's efforts to combat the problems with methamphetamine use.
"I think it's a combination of everyone's efforts... just the heightened awareness and education and the effort the community is making is heading in the right direction.
"Now is the time to press in," she said.
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