Corrections Officer Lisa Webster has joined the Maine Criminal Justice Academy’s trustees.
AUBURN – A veteran guard from the local jail is helping to set policy for law enforcement across Maine.
Lisa Webster, a corrections officer at the Androscoggin County Jail, has been appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. On Feb. 11, Gov. John Baldacci plans to visit the jail to award Webster with a certificate of appreciation for her work.
It’s heady stuff, said Webster, who began working on the board in November. At first, she was awed by the company.
Other members include Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara, Brian MacMaster from the state attorney general’s office and Col. Timothy Peabody, the chief warden of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
“The first time I was there, I started reading the names on the table,” Webster said. “These are people I would never have met before.”
Her bosses at the jail believe she deserves to be there.
Webster began work here in the summer of 1992, first working with inmates and then on the jail’s security system. More recently, she has helped train many of the new officers at the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Department, often teaching classes. A mother of two, she is also working toward a bachelor’s degree.
At work, Webster has fashioned lesson plans and is trusted to decide when new officers are ready to work alone, said Sgt. Eric Parker, training director for the department.
Meanwhile, some of the same issues she deals with as a teacher are being handled by the state trustees.
The board is charged with making policy for police and corrections officers throughout Maine. It can award badges and take them away. It also sets rules for such things as certification of court officers and the training of harbor masters.
When new issues come up, such as a recent court case in which a $50 million settlement was levied against New York police for strip searches, departments across the state look for guidance from the board.
When a space on the Board of Trustees opened last fall, Chairman Brian MacMaster sent out inquiries for a corrections officer among Maine’s jails, someone who was not a supervisor.
Parker thought of Webster, who was supported with letters from several of the sheriff department’s administrators.
Chief Deputy Guy Desjardins said he believes Webster’s presence will help prevent the county’s concerns from being lost amid the state shuffle.
“She offered to use vacation time to serve,” Desjardins said. He wouldn’t let her do that. “But that showed me how dedicated she was to this.”
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