HELENA- Lynn Guyer, a 30-year veteran from the Idaho corrections system, has been selected as the new warden of the Montana State Prison.
Montana Department of Corrections Director Reginald D. Michael made the announcement in a press release on Tuesday.
Guyer retired in May 2016 after 13 years as warden of the North Idaho Correctional Institution in northern Idaho. During that time, he served in several temporary assignments, including working at other male facilities and at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Institution, where he was tasked to address several areas, including a cultural assessment of the facility’s staff and inmates.
Guyer’s correctional experience also includes a seven-year stint as a Probation and Parole manager and Community Work Center manager. In this capacity, he supervised P&P officers and pre-sentence investigators, and had oversight of programming for the approximately 1,700 offenders sentenced to probation or parole in southeastern Idaho. He also has served as a senior P&P officer, an employment development coordinator and a correctional officer.
“I am looking forward to working with all the individuals at the Montana Department of Corrections. Montana State Prison has a great history and I hope to add to that,” Guyer said. “Most importantly, we want to make sure that the individuals released from the system have been fully prepared to be successful in our communities.”
Guyer graduated from Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, Idaho, with a Bachelor of Science in criminal justice. He will assume the warden’s position on October 22.
Michael said, “We were impressed with Warden Guyer’s background. He has worked in a number of capacities and with issues parallel to many of those facing corrections in Montana. His background includes a broad knowledge of justice reinvestment initiatives similar to many of those enacted during our 2017 Legislative Session. We are fortunate to have someone with such a diversity of experience joining our DOC team.”
For the past seven months, Associate Warden of Operations at Montana State Prison, Jim Salmonsen, has served as interim warden.
“I would like to extend my greatest thanks to Jim for his efforts as interim warden. He has done an excellent job ensuring that we continue moving forward towards our goals at MSP,” Michael said.
Story by David Sherman, MTN News
