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| Stalder reappointed head of Louisiana corrections department |
| By The Advocate |
| Published: 03/01/2004 |
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Gov. Kathleen Blanco rejected advice from one of her transition committees and reappointed Richard Stalder as secretary of the Department of Corrections. Opposition to the controversial veteran chief of the state prison system subsided after she created a new and separate justice system for juvenile offenders, Blanco said at a press conference last Thursday. Stalder first started working in the prison system in 1971 and has been secretary since 1992, when then-Gov. Edwin Edwards appointed him. Former Gov. Mike Foster reappointed him. Stalder is among several top Foster aides Blanco is keeping. "I did a fair search," Blanco said, and Stalder "can do as good a job as anybody." Stalder "rose head and shoulders" above every other candidate she considered for the job, she said. Asked for specific ways he improved corrections in his 12 years as secretary, Blanco said Stalder brought "serious" reform to a once-troubled prison system. Stalder agreed to help create the new juvenile justice system and let it remain independent of the adult prison system, she said. Much of the criticism of Stalder focused on the deal he signed to lease a privately owned juvenile prison in Tallulah. The deal devolved into a financial and legal disaster. The state was sued over conditions at Tallulah and continues to make lease payments, although the Legislature voted to close the prison. The Associated Press reported last month that the committee advising Blanco on her choice to run the prison system picked three finalists, none of them Stalder. A minority of committee members pushed to have Stalder added as a finalist. |
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