H.L. 'Pete' Haun, hired three years ago to overhaul a tarnished Utah
Department of Corrections, has told Gov. Mike Leavitt he plans to retire.
The timing of the retirement -- which was submitted the same day that Department of Public Safety Executive Director Craig Dearden retired after a review by Leavitt -- is coincidental, said Corrections spokesman Jesse Gallegos.
Haun met with Leavitt on November 20 to notify the governor of his plans.
'It is impossible to say enough about the outstanding leadership of Pete
Haun in Corrections,' Leavitt said in a statement recently. 'He has performed one of the most difficult jobs in government with vision, dignity, innovation and compassion. . . . He will be deeply missed, but his contributions will be long remembered.'
Haun's retirement is effective the first of the year.
Leavitt hired Haun in July 1997, after reports of mismanagement in the prison's medical division, the death of an inmate, escape of another and other problems forced the resignation of O. Lane McCotter.
'I had heard rumors about [Haun's retirement] and I hoped it wouldn't happen,' said Carol Gnade, president of the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, a frequent critic of the prison system. Haun restructured the prison's treatment for mentally ill inmates. He emphasized paying county jails to house inmates, rather than build new structures; he increased the emphasis on educating inmates and teaching them marketable skills; and he actively sought feedback from families of inmates and groups interested in the treatment of prisoners.
He also pushed to build Utah's first private prison -- a 500-bed medium-security facility slated for Tooele County -- but those plans have since crumbled.
Before becoming director of the department, Haun spent nearly 25 years in the U.S. Department of Probation and Parole, including six as its chief probation officer in Utah. He also had worked for the state's Board of Pardons for eight years.
Haun was 60 when he took the job.