Atlanta, GA – Executive Director of Parole Michael W. Nail will be a member of the new Executive Session on Community Corrections convening over the next three years at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. This prestigious panel, consisting of approximately thirty of the leading policymakers, practitioners and researchers from across the country, will help shape the meaning and future of community corrections in the United States. The Session aims to develop best practices and thinking for professionals across the public safety and criminal justice spectrum.

Nail says it’s an honor to take part in the Session.

"I'm humbled and extremely honored to have been invited to participate in this Session with my peers and colleagues from across the nation. There are many great things taking place in our state regarding criminal justice reform and I'm looking forward to being a positive representation for Georgia on that front,” stated Nail. 

The Executive Session on Community Corrections is a joint project of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). Harvard and NIJ began work on the first Executive Session on Policing in 1983. That panel, which included then Attorney General Ed Meese, developed and published a set of influential management and policy papers on community policing.

The new Executive Session on Community Corrections is forming at an appropriate time, now that the national conversation regarding correctional policy has shifted to a reform movement as states explore new strategies for managing growing prison and jail populations and historically high corresponding budgets. American correctional policy may well be shaped by the work of the Session.

Members of the Session include leaders in probation, parole, corrections, judiciary, policing and prosecution, advocates, scholars, elected officials and experienced observers of U.S. corrections policy.

The first meeting of the Executive Session will convene at Harvard on September 12, 2013.  The Session will continue to meet several times through the spring of 2016.

Michael W. Nail

Michael W. Nail’s professional career has spanned more than twenty-four years both in the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles. While serving GDC and Parole, Nail has led several statewide initiatives that are now national models.

Mr. Nail was appointed Executive Director of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles in July 2010. In this leadership role, he manages the day-to-day operations of the agency and reports directly to the five-member board. In the past three years under his leadership, the agency has developed initiatives aimed at enhancing public safety while maximizing resources. They include a voice recognition supervision program for high-performing, lower-risk/lower-need parolees and the “Virtual Office” initiative that places officers in the community full-time instead of reporting to a parole office. In the “Virtual Office” concept, parole officers utilize the state vehicle as the office, eliminating the industry standard “brick and mortar” of a physical office and state office leases in most cases.

Mr. Nail began his career with the Department of Corrections as a probation officer in 1989 and has held several management and leadership positions. Prior to joining the Parole Board, he most recently served as the Director of the Corrections Division and was responsible for the day-to-day oversight of Facility Operations, Probation Operations and Special Operations. Collectively, the units were responsible for the management and supervision of over 150,000 adult felony probationers and over 60,000 adult felony inmates.  

Mr. Nail holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration, a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice, and is a graduate of the Georgia Law Enforcement Command College. Along with his participation in many professional organizations, he currently serves on the Executive Council of the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council and is Chairman of the Probable Cause Committee.

To request an interview with Michael Nail please contact this office.

For more information on the Parole Board please visit our website at www.pap.georgia.gov.

           

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