AR HCR1011

Dr. Mary L. Parker-Reed authored the 1993 legislation that created Arkansas's current adult correctional system configuration and transferred parole and probation supervision to a newly-created Department of Community Correction.

Dr. Parker-Reed has served as a member of the Department of Criminal Justice Faculty at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock since 1984 and received the Faculty Excellence Award from the UALR Foundation Fund Board in 2011.

Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointed Dr. Parker-Reed to the Board of Corrections in 1993, with re-appointments by Governor Mike Huckabee in 2000 and Governor Mike Beebe in 2007, making her the longest-serving board member with 23 years, 7 months, and 14 days of continuous service since the board's creation in 1943.

During her board tenure, Dr. Parker-Reed served as Chair and Vice Chair and oversaw the addition of 5 prisons, 5 community correction centers, 1 technical parole violator center, and numerous facility expansions and renovations.

Both the Department of Community Correction and Department of Correction earned the Golden Eagle Award from the American Correctional Association under her leadership, and she co-founded Arkansas Paws in Prison in 2011, which has saved nearly 1,000 shelter dogs from euthanasia.