Alumnus Oversees Largest Prison System in U.S.

Deputy Executive Director Bryan Collier, TDCJ

Bryan Collier (’86) began his career at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) manning the switchboard while a student at Sam Houston State University. Now 28 years later, he is second in command at the state agency that oversees the largest adult prison, parole and probation system in the country.

“Bryan Collier represents a dedicated, committed, and visionary correctional professional highly focused on the mission of public safety recognizing the critical importance of leadership in effective management, supervision, and reentry,” said Doug Dretke, Executive Director of the Correctional Management Institute of Texas (CMIT).

Collier is Deputy Executive Director of TDCJ, a statewide system that manages 150,000 offenders, 77,000 parolees, 430,000 probationers, and 37,000 employees in Texas. During his career, he has seen the evolution of the system from prison overcrowding -- where many offenders were paroled from county jails because of a lack of room at state prisons – to a “balanced agency” with lower recidivism rates and smaller prison populations because of effective programs, better parole supervision, and diverse diversion tools for judges to control offender’s behavior in the community. . . . Read more . . .