When Millicent Newton-Embry was called into her supervisor's office as a first-year parole officer in Oklahoma, she was alarmed by the news she received.  She was being relocated to one of the agency's sub-offices where they needed someone to go to mend the relationships between parole, probation, the attorneys and the judges.  It was a challenge she didn't think she was ready for, but took on anyway, setting the tone for her career in corrections.

"I think that first experience as a parole officer really kind of opened my eyes and really set me on a path [of] 'I can do it,'" said Newton-Embry, whose latest endeavor began in March when became warden of the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center (MBCC).  "In many cases in my career I've been asked to go into difficult situations, but I've always thought of those as opportunities."

When she took over as warden of MBCC, Newton-Embry became the first African-American woman to run an Oklahoma, maximum-security correctional facility, but her own accomplishment concerns her far less than the fact that so many females in the state, especially women of color, are behind bars.

"I think about why so many women in Oklahoma go to prison and why women are over-represented in the prison [system] more than I think about myself being a woman of color and blazing a trail," said Newton-Embry, who never would have carved a path in the corrections field if it weren't for a political science course she took in college.

Newton-Embry entered Northeast Oklahoma State University as a vocal music major, but was intrigued by the debates over criminal justice that took place in her political science class.

"I kind of got bit by the criminal justice interest and decided to change my major," she said. 

Not long after that, Newton-Embry became a police officer and, in 1984, she made the shift to parole and then, eventually, community corrections.

Her experiences working with offenders at the tail-end of their sentences helped Newton-Embry build a foundation of knowledge of what offenders will need when they are released.

"I think we've got to show them a bigger picture early on," Newton-Embry said.  "In most cases [when female offenders are released, their] mom is going to say here's your kids and [they have] got to find a place to live [and] get the electricity turned on," Newton-Embry said.

Because women typically resume the caretaker role for their children when they return to the community, it's important to give them skills while they are incarcerated to help them succeed on the outside, according to Newton-Embry.

"Women are going back to be the nurturer and are going to raise the children," Newton-Embry said.  "They need to go home better prepared than they were when they came in," she added.  "[We need to] give them the opportunity to change [their] behavior and understand the importance of that."

A mother of two, Newton-Embry strives to set a good example for her own daughters and she holds her female offenders to the same high standard.  In her past positions in community corrections, she expected male offenders to set the tone for their children's lives, too. 

"As a society we have not always been ahead of the game in terms of holding fathers accountable or providing them [with] the opportunity to be good fathers as much as we have with women," said Newton-Embry, who believes that working with both male and female offenders has been a unique and enriching aspect of her career.

"I've had the wonderful opportunity, and not many people can say this, but I consider it a great opportunity to work with both male and female offenders," Newton-Embry said.  "There are certainly some qualities that each of them bring to the table [and] I have learned from working with each offender."

While working with various offenders has taught her a lot, Newton-Embry credits those she has worked alongside with having had just as much impact on her career.

"I've always valued in my career learning from different types of people, not always people who look like me, who think like me [or] who have the same background as me," Newton-Embry said.  "I think that's always been a great benefit to me--something that has made me successful."

But, ultimately, Newton-Embry attributes her successes in corrections to the lesson she learned that day when she was a rookie PO: always believe in yourself.

"I think sometimes as women we often don't believe in ourselves and we often don't take on some of the tough assignments.  I've never been one to see assignments that way and challenges that way.  I don't subscribe to the belief that I will fail," Newton-Embry said.  "I think it's because of some of the tough assignments that I am who I am today."