She received the State of Louisiana’s top civil service award for career service in 2014 and is the former President of the North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents and the Louisiana Correctional Association, She also served as Secretary of the Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum Board and is a fellow in the British American Project.
Catherine Fontenot
Executive Staff Officer
Catherine Fontenot has worked in prisons or jails her entire adult life. Initially assigned as a Classification Officer at Louisiana’s only maximum-security prison, she became the first Executive Staff Officer at the Louisiana State Prison (LSP) and its Director of Classification, in addition to serving as the ACA Accreditation Manager and assisted other prisons across the state in achieving accreditation with the American Correctional Association. Ms. Fontenot was an original member of a unique and innovative program, titled Lousiaiana Department of Corrections Restorative Justice Task Force and Victim/Offender Dialoque Program. She has served as an expert witness in corrections litigation, and is a nationally recognized for her innovative leadership in prisons and jails. Ms. Fontenot served as one of the state’s youngest assistant wardens and gained her master’s degree in criminology in 2006. She has taught criminal justice and corrections at the university level, has been a warden at a local jail, and worked as a director of a reception and diagnostic unit.
