First female warden at Fort Madison penitentiary

Patti Wachtendorf will be Iowa's first female warden at the Iowa State Penitentiary, the state's primary maximum-security facility for men, located in Fort Madison.

Wachtendorf, who has been warden at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville since 2009, was approved for the new post by the Iowa Board of Corrections Friday. She fills the vacancy left with Nick Ludwick's retirement.

'I'm happy to be a piece of history, but it's long overdue,” Wachtendorf said Friday about becoming the first woman to lead Iowa's state penitentiary.

At Mitchellville, a medium-security prison just east of Des Moines, Wachtendorf managed a $23 million budget and 237 employees, according to her LinkedIn profile. She earned a Master's degree in law enforcement from Western Illinois University, the profile states.

About 60 percent of female inmates suffer from mental illness, which is higher than the 40 percent of male inmates who deal with the disease, Wachtendorf said.

'Women are much more relationship driven and much less violent. They serve their time differently,” she said. 'It's an adjustment, but people are still people.”

The state penitentiary at Fort Madison has 642 inmates, as of Friday, in the maximum-security unit. Also at the complex is the John Bennett Correctional Center, a minimum-security facility that houses up to 200 inmates. In 2015, the Iowa Department of Corrections moved Fort Madison inmates from an 176-year-old building to a roughly $180 million facility plagued with construction delays and cost overruns.

Wachtendorf, who worked at Fort Madison from 1983 to 1997, said she's glad to be 'going home” to southeast Iowa, where she has children and grandchildren. She plans to take over full time at the prison in early February.

The Corrections Board appointed Sheryl Dahm to be warden Mitchellville, succeeding Wachtendorf. Dahm is now warden at the Clarinda Correctional Facility. Deputy Warden Stephen Weis will serve as acting warden at Clarinda in the interim, the DOC announced.

'All appointees have extensive administrative corrections experience with proven leadership in the management, supervision and treatment of adult offenders,” Corrections Spokesman Fred Scaletta said in a prepared statement. 'All appointees will continue to focus on the Department's Mission: Creating Opportunities for Safer Communities.”

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