Governor-elect Eric Geitens has announced a new director of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
Anne Precythe will replace George Lombardi, who recently has been at the center of harassment and negligence reports at the state DOC.
Presythe will leave her post as Director of Community Corrections at the North Carolina Department of Public Safety to assume oversight of Missouri’s state prisons.
In a facebook posting, Greitens claimed Missouri’s Department of Corrections is broken. He said Presythe is tough on crime and a fierce advocate for the employees and officers who will keep our streets safe.
Presythe has served in her current position in North Carolina since March 2013. Prior to that she spent six years as an administrator at that state’s Department of Corrections. Presythe attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington from 1983 to 1987, where she majored in Psychology.
After a scathing article on Pitch.com reported several corrections employees had been victimized and even threatened based on sex, age, religion, or physical ability, Missouri House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Poplar Bluff) announced he would form a committee to investigate the allegations. Richardson called the behavior unacceptable.
The story in Pitch.com said from 2012 through 2016, the state paid more than $7.5 million in settlement payments and judgments. The website also reported that during the first six months of this year, DOC was told to pay more than $4 million to victims.
In response to the accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination at DOC, Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway announced her office would conduct an immediate audit of the state’s Legal Expense Fund, which is the pool of money used to make payments stemming from lawsuits against the state.
