Bio

Burk Foster is Visiting Professor of Criminal Justice at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. From 1974 to 2005, he was Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. A former civilian police officer and lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Security Police, he completed undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Oklahoma. After moving to Louisiana, his academic interests later turned toward sentencing policies and corrections. Professor Foster has testified as an expert witness in state and federal courts on issues related to imprisonment and capital punishment. Although he is not a convict and has not aspired to be one, he was a writer and contributing editor of The Angolite, the magazine of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, for 16 years. Professor Foster and Angola inmate Lane Nelson are co-authors of Death Watch: A Death Penalty Anthology (2001). His most recent book is Corrections: The Fundamentals (2006).

Professor Foster's primary research and writing interests include the history of prisons, jail and prison policies, and the death penalty. He is a long-time member of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and the American Correctional Association. He was also actively involved in UL-Lafayette's Honors Program, teaching and directing undergraduate seminars.