Hawk Sawyer, Kathleen

Federal Bureau of Prisons Tenure

Hawk Sawyer began her career with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1976 when she became a psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Morgantown, West Virginia, which housed approximately 400 male juvenile offenders. In 1983, she was designated chief of psychology services. During that year, she also served as a senior instructor for the Bureau of Prison's Staff Training Academy in Glynco, Georgia, as a training instructor in vocational and occupational training programs.

In 1985, Hawk Sawyer became associate warden for programs at the FCI-Fort Worth, Texas. This facility was a co-correctional institution that housed 1,000 inmates. In 1986, the bureau appointed Hawk Sawyer as chief of staff training for three training centers: Glynco, Georgia; Aurora, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas. In 1987, she became warden at the FCI-Butner, North Carolina, which housed 800 male offenders.

Hawk Sawyer became the assistant director for the Program Review Division at the Central Office, Washington, D.C., in May 1989, which led to her appointment as director in 1992. In 1997, President Bill Clinton awarded her with the Distinguished Executive Award, the highest award offered to professionals in the Senior Executive Service.

Career Goals

As director, Hawk Sawyer sought to reduce the recidivism rate by offering more work and education opportunities to federal prisoners. In her decisions, she was influenced by the Post Release Employment Project, a long-term evaluation of the impact of prison industrial work that found former prisoners who had worked in prison industries were 35% less likely to recidivate one year after release than comparison group members who had not. The report also found that prisoners who had worked in prison industries were more likely to be employed during the first year after release and earned higher wages during the first year of release than others [Page 398]who had not had the same opportunities. In response to the study, Hawk Sawyer increased the number of inmates working for UNICOR (Federal Prison Industries) from approximately 16,000 inmates at the end of 1992 to 22,000 inmates mid-2003. She also focused on modernizing the educational opportunities offered to inmates by offering secondary education at every institution.

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