Department of Corrections: Director's Biography

Devon Brown, who has more than three decades of experience in the correctional field, rejoins the District of Columbia government from the State of New Jersey, where he has served as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Corrections since April 2002. Prior to heading New Jersey’s correctional system, Brown was appointed by the United States attorney general in 1998 to serve as the deputy trustee in the Office of the Corrections Trustee for the District of Columbia, where his duties included serving as interim director of the Department of Corrections for five months.

Mr. Brown, a Maryland native, has held a wide array of executive, managerial and direct service positions in the correctional field. As head of the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Brown oversaw more than 9,500 employees, 14 institutions and a jurisdictional inmate population of approximately 27,000 housed in state facilities, county jails and community halfway houses.

Mr. Brown gained national recognition for his innovative works at New Jersey’s correctional system, which included a restorative justice initiative through which offenders are encouraged to atone for the harm they caused society by giving back to the communities they have violated; the introduction of a series of inmate educational initiatives - among them the Stock Market Game and educational television; a nationally acclaimed anti-crime campaign, (the "BE SMART-CHOOSE FREEDOM" program) aimed at discouraging those at risk from becoming criminal offenders; the creation of an offender search engine to the department's web site; and a host of institutional security enhancements, including the conversion of an entire, once-problematic facility into one of relative calm by using behavior management techniques.

Mr. Brown began his career in 1974 as a forensic psychologist in the New Jersey Department of Institutions and Agencies. In 1976, he obtained a position as a correctional psychologist at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland. Brown eventually assumed the positions of associate director of behavioral sciences and, ultimately, warden. In 1991, Brown was appointed warden of the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center, where he remained until becoming assistant commissioner of administration in the Maryland Division of Corrections. Two years later, in 1993, Brown was named director of the Montgomery County (Maryland ) Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. He remained at this post until his appointment as deputy trustee in the Office of the Corrections Trustee for the District of Columbia.

In 1997, Brown received the prestigious John B. Pickett Fellowship by the National Institute of Justice at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University .

Brown earned a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1988. He received a Master of Public Administration Degree from the University of Baltimore in 1984. He also holds a Master of Arts Degree in psychology from the University of Toledo and has completed all requirements for two Ph.D. degrees from this school with the exception of the doctoral dissertation. In 1971, Brown earned a Bachelor of Science Degree from Morgan State University.

Mr. Brown has received numerous honors during his career including the "2005 Best in the Business" award by the American Correctional Association. In 2004, he was bestowed the "Gene Carte Memorial Award" by the College of New Jersey for outstanding correctional leadership and during the same year was named the "Alumni of the Year" by Morgan State University.