DES MOINES, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections on Friday during the Board of Corrections meeting named Brian Foster as Security Operations Director. Foster has worked in the field of corrections since 1985. His current position is Security Chief with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, a position he has held since May of 2020. Prior to his most recent position, Foster has served as the warden of the Waupun Correctional Institution, the Green Bay Correctional Institution, and the Kettle Moraine Correctional Institution. He has also served as a deputy warden at Kettle Moraine and was an Executive Officer at the Fort Dodge Correctional Institution from 2006 to 2010 where he helped oversee the department’s compliance with American Correctional Association standards.
Foster’s primary responsibilities, once he begins his position on May 24, will be to assess the prisons for areas of security improvement, to make recommendations to wardens and the director on ways that prisons can be physically modified in order to provide more secure environments, and to assess security-related policies and procedures in order to improve upon them.
“Hiring Security Operations Director Foster is one of many steps we are taking to improve the overall security across this department, but it’s an incredibly important one. We need fresh eyes from someone with a strong security background to look at all of our prisons and tell us what areas we can improve on in the near future and in the long-term. When we need to make investments to improve security, whether that be in infrastructure or in staffing levels, he will be making recommendations on how and where to strategically invest the taxpayers’ dollars. Our department has been making various efforts to increase security across the system, and I am grateful Brian is bringing his considerable experience to our state to help us in our mission to have the safest prisons possible,” Beth Skinner, Director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said in a released statement.
Foster comes to Iowa from Oakfield, Wisconsin. He is married with five children between the ages of 8 and 25.
In addition to this critical step in improving the security of the department after the murders that took place on March 23 in Anamosa, the department has made public a timeline of major events that have occurred for the public to better understand changes as they occur. This timeline will be updated as milestones are reached, and can be found on the department’s website under the “quick links” on the landing page.
The department has also named current Communications Director Cord Overton, as Chief of Staff of the department. In addition to overseeing internal and external communications, Overton will also oversee government affairs, corrections information technology division, cross-division management and coordination, and department strategic planning.
The department is also interviewing applicants for the position of Warden of the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility and North Central Correctional Facility. It is expected that an announcement will be made on this position in the near future.
Investigations related to the murders on March 23 are ongoing.
Read the Anamosa State Penitentiary incident timeline as updated on May 7 below:
asp_timeline_may_7_2021
