WARDEN 4 - 70428

Executive Service

This is an onsite position.

Background Check:

This position requires a criminal background check. Therefore, you may be required to provide information about your criminal history in order to be considered for this position. A Motor Vehicle Records screening and pre-employment drug screen are required prior to employment.

Who we are and what we do:

The mission of the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) is to operate safe and secure prisons and provide effective community supervision in order to enhance public safety. The department manages and operates or oversees 14 state prisons housing approximately 21,000 offenders. In addition, the department supervises some 79,000 offenders on probation, parole, or community correction and operates eight Day Reporting/Community Resource Centers across the state. The department is fully accredited by the American Correctional Association (ACA).

How you make a difference in this role:

The Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center (DJRC), located in Nashville, serves as the primary diagnostic center for females in Tennessee. The prison has a capacity of 817 inmates and houses female offenders with custody levels ranging from minimum to maximum. DJRC currently houses Tennessee's only female death row offender. Originally known as the Tennessee Prison for Women, the facility was permanently renamed in August of 2020 to honor the life and legacy of Debra K. Johnson a dedicated public servant who tragically lost her life in the line of duty. The facility offers a multitude of evidence-based programs to meet the rehabilitative needs of offenders. DJRC offers academic opportunities including Adult Basic Education and Title I special education classes. Nationally recognized certifications can be obtained through completion of vocational programming such as career exploration, computer application and literacy, culinary arts, and career management for success. DJRC also addresses the behavioral health needs of inmates by offering programs like substance use, anger management, cognitive behavior intervention, and victim impact classes. Finally, DJRC operates a transition center, located directly across the street from the main compound in Nashville. The transition center is specifically designed for women who will soon be released, providing short-term transitional services, and allowing offenders to work toward gaining job and life skills that will assist in a productive re-entry into society.

Job Overview:

The Warden has overall responsibility for the operation and direction of the facility, ensuring the facility operates in accordance with state and federal law, agency policies and procedures, and the standards of the American Correctional Association. The Warden serves as a representative of the Department in performing public contact and liaison work with law enforcement, partner organization representatives, legislators, community leaders, offenders, their families, victims, and/or the general public. This position reports to the Middle Region Correctional Administrator and is expected to be on call 24 hours a day/7 days a week, to include weekends, nights, and holidays.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure facility-wide adherence to all policies and procedures all the while operating in a safe and secure manner, to include security operations, inmate movement and control, accountability, tool, key and armory control.
• Ensure uninterrupted, around-the-clock accountability of all inmates within the facilities assigned custody/count.
• Oversee the protocols for emergency operations to ensure unhindered responses using the Organizational Structure of the Incident Command System, in areas such as escapes, natural disasters, security operations, disturbances, etc.
• Ensure compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and accreditation standards and to ensure appropriate corrective action is taken where discrepancies are noted.
• Oversee and ensure the programmatic needs addressed in each inmates risk/needs assessment are being addressed.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelors degree, with substantial and increasingly responsible management and administrative experience in adult correctional work, law enforcement, probation/parole, rehabilitative services, correctional intelligence, correctional compliance, or other related areas. Equivalent combinations of education and experience may be considered.

Pursuant to the State of Tennessee's Workplace Discrimination and Harassment policy, the State is firmly committed to the principle of fair and equal employment opportunities for its citizens and strives to protect the rights and opportunities of all people to seek, obtain, and hold employment without being subjected to illegal discrimination and harassment in the workplace. It is the State's policy to provide an environment free of discrimination and harassment of an individual because of that person's race, color, national origin, age (40 and over), sex, pregnancy, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status or any other category protected by state and/or federal civil rights laws.