Martin F. Horn was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to serve as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation, effective January 1, 2002. On January 1, 2003 Mayor Bloomberg appointed him to simultaneously serve as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, the nation’s largest jail system.

Horn has extensive experience improving government operations and has held numerous executive posts, primarily in the criminal justice field.

Since becoming Probation Commissioner Horn has reengineered the Department by focusing on high-risk offenders, improving the delivery of treatment for addiction to alcohol and other drugs, employment of offenders, improving the Department’s IT capacity, and streamlining the probation violation process. He has emphasized Probation’s role as an arm of the court and seeks to substantially reduce the number of juveniles committed to State facilities. Under Horn’s leadership New York City changed its approach to status offenders, reducing by 70% the number of PINS (Person in Need of Supervision) petitions going to the Family Court. He also supported the creation of Esperanza, a major change in the City’s approach to juvenile delinquents, paving the way for a substantial restructuring of juvenile justice in New York. During Horn’s tenure the number of juvenile cases “adjusted” by Probation instead of going to Family Court tripled.

As Correction Commissioner, Horn has rebuilt morale, accountability, and integrity following a series of highly publicized scandals. He has brought merit promotion to the Warden’s ranks, reduced overtime, reduced suicides, and continued the reduction in jail violence begun by his predecessors. Horn created the largest and most ambitious jail reentry program in the nation. Under his leadership all sentenced inmates leaving the City’s jails are afforded meaningful discharge planning assistance and the opportunity to find a job immediately upon release. He has remade the intake process to insure all inmates possess the documents needed to work upon release, he has created systems to identify high frequency jail and shelter users and worked with the City’s housing and homeless services community to address the needs for housing of discharged inmates. Horn has continued to work to eliminate the introduction of drugs into prisons and jails by initiating New York’s first drug interdiction program including the first wide scale drug testing in the City’s jails.

Prior to his return to his home state of New York, he served as a member of Governor Tom Ridge’s Senior Staff as Secretary of Administration for the state of Pennsylvania. The Office of Administration (OA) is the non-financial operating arm of state government. Its main functions include: information technology, labor relations, management training, and human resource management.

Governor Ridge appointed him to chair the state’s Tobacco Settlement Investment Board. He also served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Employees’ Benefit Trust Fund, chairman of the ImaginePA Executive Committee, chairman of the JNET Council (Justice Network), and as a board member of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.

Horn served, from March 1995 until January 2000, as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Corrections. While in that post he is credited with implementing an aggressive drug interdiction program and substantially increasing drug and alcohol treatment within prisons. He managed an expansion of more than 8,000 inmates and instituted programs in citizenship and parenting. During his tenure staff and inmate safety improved and prison perimeters and information systems were modernized.

Horn earlier served as executive director and chief operating officer for the New York State Division of Parole, was assistant commissioner of corrections for New York State and Superintendent of Hudson Correctional Facility, and was an assistant professor of criminal justice at State University College in Utica, New York from 1975 to 1977. He began his career as a New York State Parole Officer in 1969. Throughout his career Horn has continued to be a teacher holding adjunct positions at Harrisburg Area Community College in Pennsylvania and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

Horn earned a bachelor's degree in government from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1969, and a master's degree in criminal justice from John Jay College, City University of New York, in 1974. Horn is a member of the Board of Governors of the American Correctional Association and the 2005 recipient of the Michael Francke award from the Association of State Correctional Administrators.