Gov. Cooper promotes prisons chief Todd Ishee to lead new cabinet-level agency
Todd Ishee, the man who steered the North Carolina prisons through the worst of the pandemic, won’t be leaving state government after all.
Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday appointed Ishee to an expanded role leading the state’s newly created Department of Adult Correction.
In early August, state Department of Public Safety employees were notified that Ishee would be leaving his job as prisons commissioner because he had accepted a job as director of the American Correctional Association, the oldest professional organization for correctional officials.
Ishee has since told the ACA he would not be taking that job, a spokesperson for the governor said. Instead, he chose to stay on with the state as secretary of a cabinet-level department that will oversee probation and parole and inmate reentry programs, in addition to the prisons. He begins in his new role on Oct. 3.
“Todd Ishee brings decades of knowledge and experience to this role and I am confident in his ability to stand up and lead this new Department,” Cooper said in the release. “He is a nationally sought after leader and I am grateful for his willingness to serve as Secretary here in North Carolina and continue his critical work in our corrections system.”
In 2011, lawmakers voted to fold the state’s corrections department into the state Department of Public Safety, a move partly intended to save money. Last November, however, lawmakers reversed course, voting to create the new Department of Adult Correction.
In a news conference last year, Senate leader Phil Berger said problems within the prison system prompted the plans for a new department. A new cabinet-level agency would “help focus on the problems and needs there,” Berger said.
“This is a job that was designed to elevate prisons to the cabinet level and give Ishee a voice in the entire system, from an offender’s entry into prison to his or her reentry into society upon the completion of their sentence,” prisons spokesman John Bull said.
The new department officially begins operations on Jan. 1.
“I am thankful for the opportunity to serve the people of North Carolina and lead this new agency,” Ishee said in the news release. “Our state’s corrections system is essential to not only keeping our state safe, but to help people move beyond their mistakes and live meaningful lives when they reenter our communities.”
While serving as the state’s commissioner of prisons for the past three years, Ishee faced tough challenges: responding to the spread of COVID-19 inside the prisons, encouraging inmates to get vaccinated, and keeping prisons safe despite the most severe staff shortages in recent history.
Before becoming the state’s prison chief, Ishee served as deputy director for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. He started his prison career as a corrections officer.
Ishee, 52, will earn $195,082 a year in his new role — a 25% increase over what he earned as prisons commissioner.
This story was originally published September 22, 2022 at 5:39 PM.
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