As Nebraska native Ron White prepares to move next month to New England, where he will take over as head of the Merrimack County Jail in New Hampshire, he looks back fondly on his career as director of the Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, Adult Corrections Department.  During his tenure there, he helped to improve conditions at the jail so it met statewide standards and he also implemented a variety of inmate programs.

At its annual conference last month, the American Jail Association recognized White for his accomplishments in Scotts Bluff County by presenting him with the Small Jail Correctional Administrator of the Year award.

Recently, The Corrections Connection Network News caught up with White, who talked about the award and reflected on his time in Scotts Bluff County.  He also looked ahead at what is in store for him this summer, when he assumes leadership of the newly constructed, 236-bed Merrimack County Jail.

Q: When did you get your start in corrections?

White:  I graduated from high school and I joined the Air Force.  I went in for guaranteed law enforcement.  I wanted to see the world, but for my duty assignment, they sent me to Omaha Nebraska (and I am a native Nebraskan). I guess that they thought that was where the world was at.  I started out as a gate guard, guarding the gates that go onto the base.  Then, I went to law enforcement, where you driver the cars around the base.  Then I went into investigation.

Lakenheath, England was my next duty assignment; it was 70 miles from London.  When I went over there, I initially was a ship and gate guard.  Then, I moved to the elite gate guard [position] for 11 months.

[I then] told people that I would like to go into corrections and that is where my corrections career started - at the United Kingdom Consolidated Confined Facility at Lakenheath Air Base in England.  It was a 48-bed, coed facility for the military.  So I went in there and I worked corrections until my next duty assignment went to Dover, Delaware.  In Dover, I did some law enforcement and I went in as the officer in charge of the detention [facility] - four cells, that was our corrections there.

Then I [became] a corrections liaison.  I worked with Fort Lee, Md., Quantico, Va.. the Navy Brigade in Philadelphia and McGuire Air Force Base confinement.  Any time an air force member [was] in a facility, I would coordinate their move.  If there was anything that had to be done with them, I would work with their unit and help them in regard to confinement.

Then I said, I kind-of like this corrections stuff.  So, I put in for a special duty assignment to the 3320th corrections and rehabilitation squadron at Lowrie Air Force base in Denver, Colorado.  That was headquarters for corrections for the Air Force.  They were responsible for all air force corrections worldwide. I went there and did nothing but corrections the whole time I was there for seven-and-half years.  Then they decided I had been in the states too long and in corrections too long and [that I] had to take an overseas assignment.  I went to [a base in] Greenland and I was chief of security police, which was the commander for the police.

From there, I went to Thomas Air Force Base in California.  They had a facility that had been closed for seven years and I went out and opened it back up.  I made it a regional Department of Defense confinement facility.  That was my last assignment in the Air Force.  I retired, effective July 1, 1994 and, then, I went to work for the Nebraska Department of Corrections in Lincoln as a safety officer.

I was there for three years and, the first year, I was there, I received the Employee of the Year [award] for the Lincoln Correctional Center. 

Then, the opportunity had come to [work in Scotts Bluff County].  I was selected for the position here and started October 15, 1997. 

Q: What have some of your challenges/accomplishments been in Scotts Bluff County?

White: When I took this job, this facility was on the verge of being closed down.  It was in all kinds of trouble.  Within one month, I had it in compliance with Nebraska Jail Standards (after it had been out of compliance for seven years).  Then, we just started building programs.  When I took over, we had one non-denominational religious service for inmates and sporadic GED programs.  Those were the only two programs we had.  We now have 17 different types of programs, including an inmate community work program that we are really proud of.  We take inmates into the community and they work for non-profit organizations or government [entities]. 

We [have] 500-700 hours of inmate employment a month.  We put in a golf course; we did work at the West Nebraska Arts Center.  We have done [work] for Head Start - tons of different things, where they couldn't do it themselves.  It's a really great program. 

[In terms of religious programming], we [now] have Protestant services [and] Catholic services.  We do services in English and Spanish.  We do, through [the] Health and Human Services [Department], life skills program, STD [education] programs.  We have a prison fellowship training for our volunteers.  All of our volunteers go through and initial orientation class and training program before they are allowed to work at the facility.

With all that going on, we also got a $12 million bond passed to build a new jail here.  It's the first bond to pass in Scotts Bluff County since 1968.  I think we have done a lot here.

I am now leaving Scotts Bluff County and will be in place [in July] Merrimack County, New Hampshire, [at] a brand new, 300-bed direct supervision facility. 

Q: What does the award mean to you?

White: Being selected as small jail administrator of the year for the profession is the ultimate award that you can earn.  [I come] from a small facility in Nebraska, one that had a lot of issues that we were able to work through.  My staff nominated me for an award through the Nebraska Correctional Association, [but] I am an executive board member [and] because of that, I could not win the award.  What happened was they felt it needed to be forward to AJA.  [A colleague of mine], along with my wife, took the original nomination and made that part of the package and sent it to AJA.  To say that I was shocked when I got that would be an understatement.  I was shocked when I [was] notified that I had been selected.

To go to Kansas City for the conference and to stand up in front of about 800 [people] and get that award presented to you, there is just nothing that compares to it.  In our business, there's definitely ups and there's definitely downs and getting that award really helps to offset a lot of the negatives in this career.

I was also presented with the Outstanding Jail Administrator [award] by Nebraska Jail Standards Board in April 2004, which was a huge honor, too.  Then, to get the next one, it was like "what a year."  Corrections is my passion.  I quickly realized where I really was good and where was my forte was corrections.  I really believe that we have to have good people in the business.  You have to have strong leadership because so many things you just fly by the seat of your pants on in this business and you deal with people who are pretty much down and out by the time they hit your facility.  You've got to somehow bring them back and restore them as much as you can.  I believe programming is key to [reducing] recidivism and you set an example, a model for your staff and get them to believe in your philosophy and that you can make a difference in people's lives.

Q: What advice do you have for people starting out in the corrections field?

White: I tell people when I hire new people that are coming into the job [that they] are either going to love corrections or [they] are going to hate it.  There's no in between to me.  If you hate it, get out of it.  If you love it, it's one of the best career moves you can possibly make.  It has so much opportunity for advancement.  It's a diverse field. 

The stereotype is that you just have guards.  We are professionals.  We are correctional officers.  You have food services.  You have medical.  You have maintenance.  You have records people.  You have budget people.  It gives you a wonderful opportunity to work into whatever field you want within the field of corrections.  I think it takes a passion, a conviction, a dedication and that is what I would share with someone coming into the system.  Try to learn quickly if this is what you feel in your heart is the right thing to do.  If you don't have a passion for it this business, it will consume you.

Q: What are you looking forward to in New Hampshire?

White: New leadership.  New vision.  To go forward.  To be not afraid to think out of the box and be innovative.  To recognize the talent you have working with your operation.  To try to break some trends in terms of the incarceration.  To manage and lead it the best way I possibly can and have fun doing it.