Chief Corrections Officer Receives Highest Honor from Association of State Correctional Administrators
Rick Seiter distinguished for service, leadership in distinguished career
Rick Seiter, CCA executive vice president and chief corrections officer, recently received the Louie Wainwright Award from the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA).
The award, which recognizes former corrections directors who have demonstrated outstanding achievements in the field, was announced at the American Correctional Association’s (ACA) 139th Congress of Correction in August. The award’s namesake, Louie Wainwright, served for more than 20 years as secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections.
Reginald A. Wilkinson, a past ASCA president, nominated Seiter for his dedication, innovation, attention to detail and commitment to correctional best practices. “I have known Rick for 25 years and can attest to his dedication to the corrections profession,” Wilkinson wrote in his nomination. “I credit him with jumpstarting my career in corrections in 1984 when he appointed me to the positions of director of training and warden of the Dayton Correctional Institution.”
Seiter’s tenure in corrections spans more than three decades and includes more than 20 years in a variety of leadership roles with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He also served as assistant director of the Federal Prison System, where he oversaw the Industries, Education and Training division. Later, he was named chief operating officer of Federal Prisons Industries, a government corporation that sells goods manufactured by inmates.
In 1983, Seiter was appointed by Gov. Richard F. Celeste as Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and served almost six years. He was also the first chief of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) National Academy of Corrections, which coordinates training activities for practitioners working in state and local adult corrections, including programs in correctional leadership, jail and prison management and offender programming.
For five years after his retirement from the federal government, Seiter was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Saint Louis University. He has published several articles and authored two textbooks, Corrections: An Introduction (2008, 2005) and Correctional Administration: Integrating Theory and Practice (2002).
“Dr. Seiter’s contributions to professionalizing corrections are unmatched,” Wilkinson said. “The strides made under his leadership, in a multitude of capacities, are ones that are indelible to our craft. No one person has been truer in terms of not only wanting to be creative, but build programs and services that work.”
CCA Source, Fall 2009