Professor/former Commissioner Michael P. Jacobson

[DOC Shield]

Founding NYCHS president/incorporator/trustee

Professor Michael P. Jacobson, former NYC Probation and Correction Commissioner (official DOC photo, above left), is one of 13 original signers of NYCHS' articles of incorporation at its organizational meeting July 13, 1999. In a photo from that meeting at the Tombs (above right), he addresses the gathering after his election as first NYCHS president.

Doctor/Professor Michael P. Jacobson, a founding NYCHS trustee and its first president, teaches at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration.

Even while serving as Correction Commissioner, Prof. Jacobson was also on the Graduate Faculty of the Wagner School of Public Administration at New York University, where he taught courses on public policy analysis and governmental budgeting. He has a Ph.D in Sociology from the CUNY Grad Center.

Commissioner Jacobson retired from government administration Dec. 31, 1997, and took on his academic posts at the Grad Center and John Jay. He had been appointed as Correction Commissioner on March 30, 1996, by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani after serving as Acting Correction Commissioner from January 24, 1995. While Acting Correction Commissioner, he continued to serve as Commissioner of the New York City Probation Department, having been appointed to that position on June 1, 1992.

For two decades, Dr. Jacobson has specialized in the field of criminal justice, particularly in the areas of financial issues, technology initiatives, multi-agency operations and victims rights. He also is a member of the Vera Institute of Justice Board of Trustees.

As Correction Commissioner, he oversaw an annual budget of more than $775 million, a uniformed and civilian workforce of about 13,000, and an inmate population of more than 125,000 admitted yearly to the Department’s sixteen jail facilities and three hospital prison wards.

During his tenure as Probation Commissioner, he was responsible for that Department’s $69 million annual budget, 1,600 employees and 97,000 probationers yearly.

Prior to his appointment as Probation Commissioner, he served as Deputy Budget Director at the City’s Office of Management and Budget, where he worked for seven years. In that capacity, he had oversight responsibility for all agencies in the City’s criminal, juvenile and civil justice areas. He previously served as Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Arson Strike Force for five years, where he helped plan and coordinate the City’s anti-arson strategies.

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