Biography: Adrienne R. Poteat
Deputy Director Adrienne R. Poteat serves as the Agency Head of the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia (CSOSA). In that capacity she leads the agency's 800 federal employees in providing community supervision for over 15,000 adults on probation, parole, and supervised release in the District of Columbia. Ms. Poteat has served as CSOSA's Deputy Director, responsible for the day to day management of the agency, since 2002.
Ms. Poteat has over 35 years of law enforcement experience. After graduating from college she began her law enforcement career with the Hampton Police Department as an Intake Officer, followed by a short term with the Newport News Juvenile Domestic Relations Court. In 1975, Adrienne Poteat returned to Washington and became the first woman correctional officer hired by the DC Department of Corrections. This was the first of a series of progressively challenging positions with the DC DOC that included case manager, unit manager, Deputy Warden, Warden and Deputy Director.
One of Ms. Poteat's proudest accomplishments was to achieve national accreditation of the Maximum Security Facility by the American Correctional Association (ACA) during her tenure as the first and only female warden to lead that institution.
After lending her substantial leadership to the Maximum Security Facility, Ms. Poteat was named Warden of the newly constructed Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF) and later served as the principle lead expert on the privatization of the CTF through a 20-year sale/lease back agreement between the Corrections Corporation of America and the Government of the District of Columbia.
In her capacity as Deputy Director of the DC Department of Corrections, Ms. Poteat was responsible for the care and custody of over 16,000 inmates and managed nearly 3,200 employees. In 2001, Ms. Poteat ended her distinguished career with the DC Department of Corrections and joined the United States Parole Commission as a Hearing Examiner where she remained until assuming the Deputy Director post at CSOSA.
Ms. Poteat holds a B.A. in Sociology from Hampton Institute and is the recipient of numerous awards. She is a native Washingtonian and continues to reside in the District of Columbia.
Learn More About CSOSA
Employment Information
As a Federal agency with a distinctly local mission, CSOSA employees perform challenging work that directly affects public safety in the District of Columbia's neighborhoods.
