Mark Bolton

Former Director, Louisville Metro Corrections

Mark Bolton is the retired Louisville Metro Corrections Director after serving 11 years at the helm of that agency and 40 years in the field of Corrections overseas and in multiple states and local jurisdictions. Mark is a graduate of Arizona State University with a B.S. Degree in Criminal Science and the U.S. Department of Justice Executive Excellence Leadership and Management Program. He started his career as a corrections officer in 1979 with the Arizona Department of Corrections where he worked the next 15 years as a probation/parole officer, warden/ institution superintendent, central office administrator and Operations Director of Community Corrections. In 1992 Mark relocated to the Pacific Northwest where he spent 14 years as the Deputy Director of the jail systems in both Olympia and Seattle, Washington. It was also during this time Mark worked a period in Iraq with the Department of Justice and the Iraqi National Prison System on United Nations Human Rights Standards.

Mark previously was on faculty at the University of Louisville, College of Justice Administration and was featured on PBS Front Line in 2014 and numerous other reform related documentaries where his position on criminal justice reform have been prominently displayed. Mark has also served on multiple boards and policy level justice committees and upon retirement was awarded the prestigious Louisville Defender Community Service Lifetime Achievment Award.

Mark spends his time and energy consulting and volunteering in Latin America building small homes for local citizens and continues as an anti-corruption law  enforcement activist and advocate for civil rights and criminal justice reforms.

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