Deputy Commissioners

Deputy Commissioners are civil service appointments, unlike Commissioners, who are appointed by the Governor. Most have years of experience working in corrections and law enforcement. Deputy Commissioners primarily preside over quasi-judicial hearings that determine whether a parolee has violated their parole conditions, and if so, whether they will be returned to prison for up to one year for that violation.

Deputy Commissioners also:

• conduct documentation hearings and review multi-year denials of a parole for inmates serving life sentences
• review and decide administrative appeals of Board decisions
• conduct certification, placement, discharge, and re-hospitalization hearings for mentally disordered offenders
• conduct probable cause hearings for inmates who are considered to be sexually violent predators
• serve on hearing panels that are chairred by Commissioners that determine parole suitability for life-sentenced inmates