James Dzurenda
James
Dzurenda began his career
in 1987 as an officer in a local jail in Connecticut. He worked his way through
the ranks where he served as a Jail Lieutenant and then working in the
community on statewide Gang Task Force in Collaboration with Connecticut State
Police, FBI, DEA, ATF, State’s Attorney Police Inspectors, and several local
law enforcement agencies.
Following his assignment as Lieutenant, he was promoted to
Captain and assigned to the Regional Office for Connecticut Department of
Corrections (CTDOC) where he was the DOC Liaison for the Office of the Attorney
General working on litigation for cases in State and Federal Courts in CT, as
well as, 2nd Circuit Court in NYC.
Following his role as Captain, he was promoted to Major and
Chief of Security for another local jail in CTDOC where he remained until
appointed to Warden at several state prisons and where he consolidated the
entire State’s Chronic Mentally Ill population to one Facility, developing
programs which were later used as a National model.
Over the next few years, Dzurenda was appointed to District
Warden, Deputy Commissioner of Operations, and ultimately Commissioner for the
Connecticut Department of Correction. As Commissioner, he managed all custody
and operations, which included 18 facilities, 19,000 offenders, 7,000 staff
members and more than $350 million in state funding which did not include
medical and mental health services. At the same time, Dzurenda also had a dual
role as Commissioner of Parole and Community Enforcement which supervised
approximately 6,000 offenders on Parole or Community Service.
During his tenure in Connecticut, Governor Dannel Malloy
appointed Dzurenda to several legislative commissions which included the
State’s Sentencing Commission, Retirement Commission and Criminal Justice
Interagency Commission.
Dzurenda retired from state service in August 2014, and he
then accepted a new role as First Deputy Commissioner for the New York City
Department of Correction overseeing the city jails in each of the Five
Burroughs, District Courts and Rikers Island. In New York City he managed
14,000 staff, 9,000 offenders and a $2.75 billion budget.