WITNESS
Dr. Mary Livers is a corrections administrator with more than 26 years experience. Currently the Deputy Secretary for Operations at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, Dr. Livers oversees the management of agencies and programs that are responsible for the processing, custody and supervision of offenders confined in detention and correctional facilities and programs. Deputy Secretary Livers is also responsible for Department programs pertaining to staff training and professional development, victim services, emergency preparedness, and community re-entry services.
She began her career with the Arkansas Department of Corrections, serving in a variety of capacities including Assistant Warden, and then joined the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, where she held progressively responsible positions during a 19-year period before being appointed to the second-in-command post of Associate Director and chief advisor to the director. The other positions she held were Chief of Staff and Institutional Operations, Regional Director, Deputy Director of Community Corrections, Warden, Deputy Warden, Superintendent, Administrator of Classification and Case Management and Administrator of Classification and Programs. Dr. Livers received a doctorate in adult and higher education with staff development and training specialties from Oklahoma University in 2001. She holds a master's in social work and a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State University.
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STATEMENT
…What we [CEO's of correctional agencies] do need is more true partnerships that will work with correctional leaders, our professional organizations, and our political systems to change the dialogue about American prisons. We need partnerships that will help us look for ways to get public support without demonizing everyone who does this work. We need partnerships that will help us get old prisons replaced with modern, efficient physical plants. We need partnerships that will help move us to obtain the kind of staff and programs we need to do the science of changing criminal behavior. We need partnerships that help us advance that science, and that will help us continue to develop best practices. We need partnerships that will help us change from a reactive political system to a proactive political system. This may be the biggest challenge of all, since proactively there are always better uses for funds than spending for correctional systems. Unfortunately, it is usually after the crisis that funding and reforms occur in corrections. The correctional leadership that I know would like to do better than that.
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
Download the complete written statement
Note: Some witnesses submitted documents in addition to the written statement they prepared for the hearing. In most cases, those documents are not available on the Commission's web site.
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