Stephen J. Curry spent over three decades in the military, training military police officers and commanding battalions overseas.  Now, with that experience to guide him, the New England native has taken on a challenge closer to home.  In July, he became the Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, an agency, which he says is in need of some reorganization.

Recently, The Corrections Connection talked with Curry about the changes that are in store for the N.H. DOC and how his military background has prepared him to lead the department.

Q: Can you discuss your military background?

Curry: I graduated from high school in 1968.  I went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1968 for four years and graduated from West Point in 1972.  I immediately [began] active duty and spent 32 years [in the military].

My very first assignment as a Military Police officer was in a correctional facility at Fort Carson, Colorado back in 1973 and 1974.

My other experiences throughout [my] time in military, with corrections specifically, had to do with some corrections capabilities that I had as part of the unit that I deployed with in 1990 as part of the Persian Gulf War and then, also, in 1994 and 1995, in a deployment to Bosnia- Herzegovina and then, lastly, as I assumed the job as both the assistant commandant and the Commandant of the U.S. Army Military Police School.  I was responsible for forming the doctrine, designing the organization and developing the training for all corrections personnel from everyone from the lower level corrections officers to the highest level supervisors and commanders.

All of the last 31 years of my career were spent in the law enforcement field, predominately.  And, in the military, the corrections business is part of the law enforcement field.  It's part of the Military Police Corps.

Q: Can you talk about some of your accomplishments during your time in the military?

Curry: I commanded a Military Police Battalion in the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and that's about 900 or so soldiers.  In 1995, I was with the first deployment of U.S. soldiers to Bosnia- Herzegovina with a brigade of approximately 1,200 soldiers - a Military Police Brigade - from Germany to Bosnia- Herzegovina.

I was ultimately, in 2000, promoted to my final grade of Brigadier General.

A year later, I took up responsibility of the Commandant of the Military Police School and the Chief of the Military Police branch.  The Military Police School is at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Q: What brings you to New Hampshire?

Curry: I decided to retire in New England - that's where I am from.  I still have family here.  It just happened that the state of New Hampshire was looking for someone to lead [its] Department of Corrections.  The governor asked me to take that mission.

Q: How will your military experience help you to lead the department?

Curry: The Department of Corrections is a paramilitary organization.  We have uniformed officers, many of them.  There is a rank structure [and many officers] pride themselves on discipline and integrity and a high level of training.  That's very, very similar to the organization [that] I left.

Q: What are some strengths you bring to this position?

Curry: I think I have some organizational ability, some leadership traits and characteristics and a motivation to make a contribution to this effort on behalf of the citizens of New Hmapshire.

Q: What challenges do you face?

Curry: On the whole, we have an aging infrastructure because of budget constraints.   We have a less than optimum number of folks in the workforce and that's about it.

I have just completed a series of orientations - visits to all 10 of the county correctional facilities, all of the state correctional facilities, including all of the probation and parole offices throughout the state.  I have had meetings with all of the state law enforcement and criminal justice professional associations, sheriffs, state police, chiefs of police [and] county correctional superintendents.  I'm in the process of completing my assessment of the health of the system and, in the months ahead, I'll be developing a short and long range plan to try to get at some of the problems.

I know, for sure, up front, that we'll have to take a look at the organization of the department.  It's a fairly young department that was formed as a collection of many diverse functions and not necessarily integrated.

What I will concentrate on, initially, is how to reorganize the department into a corrections system - and the key word is system - that takes all of those diverse functions that are all related in some way [and] integrates them into a system.

Q: What advice do you have for other people working in the field?

Curry: Our system can not continue to grow because nobody is moving through it.  It will have an input and it must have an output as well and that is how you have to view it in order to keep it balanced.

[Also], every single day, you have to maintain a steady balance and just take it day by day and optimize your non-job time doing something that you enjoy.  In particular, I enjoy playing golf.  After spending a good amount of time inside the walls of one facility or another, being outside is a welcome change of pace.