Contact Information:

Address: Criminal Justice Department
Saginaw Valley State University
7400 Bay Road
University Center, MI 48710
Telephone: (989) 964-4156
e-mail: burk@burkfoster.com

Education:

• M.A. in Public Administration, University of Oklahoma, 1971.
• B.A. in Political Science-Police Administration, University of Oklahoma, 1969.

Employment and Related Experience:

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. His primary fields of academic expertise are sentencing, prisons, and the death penalty. He is recognized as an expert witness in state and federal courts, having testified on jail and prison conditions in civil, criminal, and capital cases in Louisiana and Texas.

Consultant to the entertainment and educational media, working on films and documentary videos related to prisons and the death penalty, including:

• Hard Time (1997)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• Big House: Angola (2000)
• 900 Women: LCIW (2000)

Professional/Personal Activities:

• Member, American Correctional Association.
• Instructor, Acadiana Law Enforcement Training Academy, 1976 to 2004.
• Member, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, 1980 to present.
• Faculty Sponsor, UL-Lafayette Criminal Justice Society, 1978 to 1988, and 2001 to 2005.
• Contributing editor, The Angolite, 1993-2003.
• Editorial board, Corrections Compendium.
• Member, American Correctional Association Research Council, 1998-2002.
• Member, American Correctional Association Professional Education Council, 1998-2002.
• Member, Louisiana State Penitentiary Museum Foundation Board of Directors, 1997-2003.
• Secretary/Treasurer, Phi Beta Kappa Association of Southwest Louisiana.
• Member, 50 States Marathon Club.

Awards and Honors:

• National Merit Scholarship Finalist, 1965.
• Phi Beta Kappa, 1969.
• Research Fellow, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, 1969-71.
• Phi Kappa Phi, 1995.
• Louisiana Council on Human Relations, Humanitarian Service Award, 2003.

Recent Publications of Interest:

• Foster, Burk. 1985. "Pardon Me, Governor: The Politics of Executive Clemency In Louisiana." The Times of Acadiana (Lafayette, LA), July 3/July 10.
• Foster, Burk. 1988. "Prison Overcrowding: The Louisiana Response." The Angolite, March/April: 19-40.
• Foster, Burk. 1988. "Louisiana Penal Crisis: A Quest for Alternatives." The Angolite, July/August: 37-51.
• Wikberg, Ronald and Foster, Burk. 1990. "The Long-termers: Louisiana's Longest Serving Inmates and Why They've Stayed So Long." Prison Journal, Summer: 9-14.
• Forsyth, Craig and Foster, Burk. 1993. "Trends in Female Criminality, 1943-1991." Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology 21 (2): 135-140.
• Foster, Burk and Forsyth, Craig. 1994. "Meanest of All." The Angolite, July/August: 26-31.
• Foster, Burk, Rideau, Wilbert, and Dennis, Douglas. 1995. The Wall Is Strong: Corrections in Louisiana, 3rd ed. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies.
• Foster, Burk. 1995. "The Meaning of Life: The Evolution and Impact of Natural Life Sentences in Louisiana." The Angolite, July/August: 16-23.
• Foster, Burk. 1995. "How the Death Penalty Really Works: Selecting Death-Penalty Offenders in America." The Angolite, September/October: 22-25.
• Foster, Burk. 1996. "Executed Rapists." The Angolite, September/October: 36-47.
• Foster, Burk. 2000. "Slaves of the State." The Angolite, July/August: 42-51.
• Foster, Burk. 2000. "Any Last Words?" The Angolite, November/December: 44-51.
• Nelson, Lane, and Burk Foster. 2001. Death Watch: A Death Penalty Anthology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Foster, Burk, Broussard, Paula, and DeLay, Christopher. 2002. Criminal Justice in Louisiana, 4th ed. Lafayette, LA: Center for Louisiana Studies.
• Foster, Burk. 2003. Corrections in America: Study Guide, 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Foster, Burk. 2006. Corrections: The Fundamentals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Professional Journals Published In:

• Journal of Police Science and Administration
• Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology
• The Prison Journal
• International Review of Modern Sociology
• Louisiana History
• The Criminologist
• International Journal of Sociology of the Family

Other topics of research and writing include:

• The role of the halfway house in corrections.
• Police training for medical emergencies.
• Police discretion in the use of protective custody.
• Public ratings of police effectiveness.
• Police malpractice litigation.
• Use of executive clemency in Louisiana.
• Classification of prisoners in Louisiana.
• The impact of life sentences on corrections in Louisiana.
• The accumulation of long-term inmates in Louisiana prisons.
• The history of Angola.
• A comparison of homicide rates and death sentences in the states.
• Violent crime rates among juvenile offenders.
• Rates of violent crime in the states.
• Family violence history of jail inmates.