commissioners
The Commissioners include civic leaders with experience in law enforcement, seasoned corrections professionals, advocates for the rights of prisoners, and members of the religious community.

Co-Chairs

The Hon. John J. Gibbons
An attorney in private practice who argued the groundbreaking Rasul v. Bush case before the United States Supreme Court and a former Chief Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit

Nicholas de B. Katzenbach
An attorney in private practice and former Deputy Attorney General and Attorney General of the United States (Under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson) who led the federal governments efforts to desegregate the American south and chaired the 1967 Commission on Crime in the United States


Members

Salvador Balcorta
CEO of Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe in El Paso, Texas; Board Member of the National Council of La Raza; and a nationally respected Chicano activist for social justice

Stephen B. Bright
Founder of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, which provides representation to prisoners in cases involving claims of cruel and unusual conditions of confinement, and one of the most well-known advocates for the rights of prisoners

Richard G. Dudley, Jr., M.D.
A psychiatrist in private practice who is frequently called to provide expert testimony in criminal and civil cases around the country about the lasting psychological damage of violence and abuse in prison

James Gilligan, M.D.
A renowned expert on violence and violence prevention, who is currently Visiting Professor of Psychiatry and Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and was formerly Director of Mental Health for the Massachusetts prison system

Saul A. Green
A Principal and member of Miller Canfield's Minority Business Practice Group and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan (1994-2001)

Ray Krone
Former prisoner who spent more than a decade behind bars, some of it on death row, before DNA testing cleared his name

Mark H. Luttrell
Sheriff of Shelby County (Memphis), Tennessee, and former the warden at three federal prisons

Gary D. Maynard
Director of the Iowa Department of Corrections and President-Elect of the American Correctional Association

Marc H. Morial
President and CEO of the National Urban League, and a former Mayor of New Orleans and Louisiana State Senator

Pat Nolan
President of Prison Fellowship's Justice Fellowship and a member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and a former Republican leader in the California State Assembly who served 25 months in a federal prison on a racketeering charge

Stephen T. Rippe
Executive Vice President and COO of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation and former Major General in the United States Army

Laurie O. Robinson
Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Master of Science in Criminology Program and former Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Justice Programs (1993-2000)

Senator Gloria Romero
California Senate Majority Leader and Chair of the Senate Select Committee on the California Correctional System

Timothy Ryan
Chief of Corrections for Orange County, Florida, and in that role oversees one of the largest jail systems in the United States

Margo Schlanger
A leading authority on prisons and inmate litigation; Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri; and a former attorney in the Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, of the U.S. Department of Justice

Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr.
Senior Counsel at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and also at New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice, and Chair of the Vera Institute of Justice Board of Trustees

The Hon. William Sessions
A partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Holland & Knight LLP, former U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Texas, and former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

Hilary O. Shelton
Director of the NAACP Washington Bureau