Corrections_Today_January_February_2020_Vol.82_No.1

From the Executive Director

was contagious, and we will miss her at ACA events. John Braithwaite, Phyllis Carl- son, Dorothy Hughes, Bob Brown, Jane Evatt and Anabel Mitchell have gone on to their reward. Their lives enriched all of those who knew them, and my prayers and thoughts go to

Lorraine, Norm, Gail, Joy, Parker and Louie. My prayers that each of them will know peace in remembering their partners in the happy times and the great times they gave to them and us. My thanks in allowing them to share their partners with us and en- riching and brightening our lives.

God bless them all.

James A. Gondles Jr., CAE ACA Executive Director

In Memoriam

“Anabel Mitchell was a trailblazer for women in the corrections profession. Her ‘firsts’ opened the door for women to advance in a then-male dominated profession. She began to crack the glass ceiling for others to follow.” — James A. Gondles Jr., CAE, ACA Executive Director

implemented the first classification office for incarcerated women. She would later become assistant super- intendent at Lowell before achieving the rank of superintendent, the first woman to be named superintendent of a men’s prison in the U.S. She also later became the first woman to be appointed to the Florida Parole Com- mission as parole commissioner in 1975. In 1984, the Anabel P. Mitchell Training Center was dedicated in her name at Dade Correctional Institu- tion in Homestead, Florida. In 2000, ACA awarded Anabel the E.R. Cass Correctional Achievement Award for her hard work and dedication. She had also been previously awarded the Maud Booth Correctional Services Award fromACA and the Louie L.

Wainwright Award from the Florida Council on Crime and Delinquency. Anabel is survived by her husband, four children, eight grandchildren and seven great- grandchildren. Anabel’s family is also accepting donations through the Corrections Foundation in Florida in her memory to support the various programs, personnel, and services in the Florida Depart- ment of Corrections. Donations can be sent here: Corrections Foundation 501 South Calhoun Street, Room 415 Tallahassee, FL 32399-2500 info@correctionsfoundation.org 850-717-3712

Anabel Mitchell May 20, 1924 – November 4, 2019

A nabel Mitchell, wife of for- mer ACA president Louie L. Wainwright Sr., passed away on November 4, 2019 at the age of 95. Anabel has been a member of ACA since 1970 and has had a long, successful career in corrections. Anabel’s career began when she became a classification officer at the Florida Correctional Institu- tion in Lowell, Florida in 1958. She was the first woman to be given the role of department head within the Florida Corrections System and

Photo courtesy Corrections Foundation, Inc.

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