WITNESS
Evelyn Ridley-Turner has spent more than 30 years working in the corrections field. From 2001 to early 2005, she was the Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Corrections and made American Correctional Association (ACA) Accreditation of the state's facilities a priority. In the course of her career, she worked in many different capacities for the Indiana Department of Corrections, including Staff Counsel in the Legal Division, Director of the Internal Audits Division, and Deputy Commissioner of the Juvenile Services Division. Ms. Ridley-Turner is the treasurer of the ACA and a member of the Association of State Correctional Administrators. She holds membership with many other professional associations, including the Indiana Bar Association, the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, the Correctional Accreditation Managers Association, the Association of Women Executives in Corrections, and the ACA's Children's Initiative Committee.
Ms. Ridley-Turner has demonstrated a dedication not only to corrections, but to youth and community work. She is currently on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Central Indiana, the Chair and Member of the Use What You've Got Prison Ministry, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Chrysalis Academy of Life and Learning. Ms. Ridley-Turner received a law degree from Indiana University School of Law in 1985 and currently practices law in Indiana in addition to working as a corrections consultant.
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STATEMENT
It was my intention that all facilities within the Indiana Department of Correction become accredited; this would include all juvenile and adult facilities, the industries division, our training academy, central office, and parole, a total of 38 facilities and programs.… By the time I left the Department, all but two of the adult prisons and parole had been accredited.
I cannot say that there were not bumps along the way as we moved to accredit all our facilities. …It was important for me that staff realized that we were in this together, that I would not ask them or their facility to engage in a process that I would not do. For that reason, I insisted that our Central Office become accredited. That involved me, the executive staff who reported to me, and all the field support staff who worked in central office who are often seen as less than facilitating and supportive by those who work in the field. Central Office was among the first accredited and I was able to use that whenever I was out discussing accreditation with facility staff. …Even the offenders were involved in the process. They knew that they were free to meet and talk with the auditors at any time and that accreditation had as much to do with them as with staff.
…Accreditation forces us to build in accountability. It isn't a "one-shot deal," we work to maintain it and the standards become part of everyday operations.
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
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