Frank Prewitt

James Franklin Prewitt (January 31, 1949 – September 7, 2020) was an American attorney and government affairs consultant. He was a confidential source upon whom the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) relied to help prosecute "Operation Polar Pen", the Alaska political corruption probe that eventually ensnared United States Senator Ted Stevens. Prewitt was the author of Last Bridge to Nowhere, a creative non-fiction book that describes his involvement as an FBI source.

James Franklin Prewitt, also known as Frank, was born in Berkeley, California on January 31, 1949. He was the youngest of three children born to Catherine and James Prewitt, co-founder of Western Baptist College (now Corban University) in Salem, Oregon. He attended public and international schools in the San Francisco Bay Area and Israel and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Corban College, a Master of Science degree from the University of Oregon and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law.^{[citation needed]}

During graduate school Frank served as a Trooper with the Oregon State Police (OSP). In his final semester of law school he was appointed legal extern to retired United States District Court Judge James Singleton and during the 1970s and 1980s taught justice courses as adjunct faculty for Anchorage Community College.^{[citation needed]}

In thirteen years of public service to the State of Alaska, Prewitt served as the Director of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Corrections and Assistant Alaska Attorney General.^{[citation needed]}

When the State of Alaska's only Psychiatric Hospital was at risk of losing accreditation, Governor Walter Hickel appointed Prewitt CEO, relying on his "exceptional management skills" to successfully re-organize and re-focus the hospital as a provider of quality inpatient and outpatient mental health services.^{[citation needed]}

Prewitt served under, and at the will of three successive Alaska Governors (Bill Sheffield, Steve Cowper and Walter Hickel). In his final year of public service, editorial writers of Alaska's largest newspaper twice applauded Commissioner Prewitt for his, "unusually level-headed approach to the high charged issue of crime…when he argues 'adding police and prosecutors, without giving equal attention to prevention, custody and treatment alternatives may be tough-minded, but it's also soft-headed and fiscally irresponsible."^{[dubious – discuss]}

In 1995 Prewitt established a private consulting and lobbying practice advising and representing human service organizations pursuing business partnerships, outsourcing opportunity, funding, statutory and regulatory changes with Alaska state and local government.

From 1998 to 2004 Prewitt was the consulting government affairs and corrections expert for corporate partnerships proposing construction and operation of for-profit correctional facilities in Alaska, Oregon and Washington.^{[citation needed]} The venture rotated through a succession of corporate principals including Allvest Inc, GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut), Cornell Corrections, Chugach Alaska Corporation (Alaska Native Regional Corporation), VECO International, Inc, Kenai Native Association, Neeser Construction and the architectural firms of Koonce Pfeffer Bettis and Livingston-Slone.^{[citation needed]}