STATE BILL COLORADO
Gov.-Elect John Hickenlooper has tapped a Missourian, Tom Clements, to succeed Ari Zavaras at the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Clements directs the Division of Adult Institutions for the Missouri Department of Corrections. His appointment is subject to Senate confirmation.
The full press release is below.
Tom Clements named Executive Director of Department of Corrections
DENVER — Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 — Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper announced today Tom Clements will be Executive Director of the Department of Corrections.
Clements is now Director of the Division of Adult Institutions for the Missouri Department of Corrections. He has more than 31 years of professional corrections experience.
“Tom Clements has built a distinguished career working his up through the ranks in the Missouri corrections system,” Hickenlooper said. “He understands parole and probation programs and has extensive experience with community corrections. We are pleased he is bringing his expertise to Colorado.”
Clements has been in his current job since September 2007. He directs operations for Missouri’s 21 adult correctional institutions and overall management of 30,500 incarcerated offenders. He has served in statewide leadership roles within the adult probation and parole system and in Missouri’s adult correctional institutions system.
“With today’s economic challenges, it is more important than ever that correctional resources be used to produce positive and measurable public safety benefits now and into the future,” Clements said. “I look forward to working with the dedicated Department of Corrections staff, the Colorado Criminal Justice and Juvenile Justice Commission and communities across Colorado to seek new opportunities to meet current budget challenges and to make communities safer.”
Clements jointed the Missouri Department of Corrections in 1979. His first job was as a Probation and Parole Officer. He later worked as a Assistant District Supervisor – Division of Probation and Parole; as Regional Administrator – Division of Probation and Parole; as Chief State Supervisor, Acting – Division of Probation and Parole; and as Deputy Director – Division of Adult Institutions.
In his current role Clements supports safe prison operations and effective offender rehabilitation and re-entry practices and has established safe and constitutionally compliant policy and procedure to guide all aspects of institutional operations. He is an active member of the Missouri Re-entry Process Steering Team created by the Governor of Missouri.
Clements earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Mid-America Nazarene University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Missouri.
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About the Department of Corrections
The Department operates 20 adult prisons and a youthful offender system. Through the 19 community and parole offices, corrections professionals supervise offenders reentering communities throughout the state. Offenders under DOC supervision participate in rehabilitative programming, including basic education, mental health and substance abuse treatment, life and work skills, and re-entry courses. The DOC management system is designed to assist offenders’ to successfully re-enter society.
About Partners for Colorado
Partners for Colorado is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation created to engage a diverse group of people from all over Colorado; ensure a smooth hand-off from the Ritter administration to the Hickenlooper administration; review the current performance, challenges and opportunities of each major area of state government and develop recommendations for improving practices within these areas; provide recommendations to the incoming administration for specific executive and legislative actions that can be pursued during the administration’s first 100 days; and recruit and evaluate candidates.
