ALLENDALE, MICH.--Pamela Withrow, a former 'welfare mother' who now directs one of Michigan's oldest correctional facilities, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Grand Valley State University's School of Criminal Justice in a convocation Monday morning. Withrow is currently the warden of the Michigan Reformatory in Ionia.
Warden Withrow epitomizes all that is good in today's corrections executive, said James Houston, director of GVSU's School of Criminal Justice. She is competent, ethical, and has an intellect that is always looking for ways to better serve the taxpayer. She is aware of the needs of the inmates in her custody. Thus, the public is protected and the inmate, if motivated, can participate in programs that will serve him upon release to free society.
Withrow completed a bachelor's degree at Michigan State University in 1976, while she was a single mother. For financial reasons, she was unable to fulfill her goal at the time of earning a law degree at the University of Michigan. She joined the Department of Corrections in 1976 and has since worked as a prison counselor, program analyst, camp supervisor, warden's assistant, deputy warden, and warden. She was appointed warden of the Michigan Reformatory in 1986.
At the Michigan Reformatory, which houses young men classified as assaultive offenders, Withrow has been a pioneer in developing cognitive intervention programs. For example, an innovative program called Strategies for Thinking Productively is available to prisoners serving sentences for committing assaultive crimes. The focus of the program is to reduce violent criminal behavior by showing prisoners their thinking controls the way they act and that by changing their thinking, a change in behavior can occur.
Her work has demonstrated that recidivism and assaults against prison guards can be reduced. Her research on the subject has been published in national and international journals, and her ideas have been duplicated in other countries.
