Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2000

Release #425-00

 
Contact: Sunny Mindel / Michael Anton (212) 788-2958
John Mohan (Correction) (212) 266-1055

MAYOR GIULIANI APPOINTS WILLIAM J. FRASER
COMMISSIONER OF DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today appointed William J. Fraser Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction. Commissioner Fraser succeeds Bernard B. Kerik, who was appointed Police Commissioner in August. Prior to the appointment, Commissioner Fraser served as Chief of Department of the Department of Correction, the agency's highest ranking uniformed position. The Mayor and the new Commissioner were joined for the announcement by Police Commissioner Kerik.

"I am proud to appoint Bill Fraser as Commissioner of the Department of Correction," Mayor Giuliani said. "He has a long and distinguished career in this Department, and his understanding of its mission and operations is unsurpassed. I have full confidence that Commissioner Fraser will build upon the extraordinary success of the Department of Correction in reducing violence and improving officer morale over the past seven years."

"I am honored that Mayor Giuliani has chosen to appoint me as Commissioner," Fraser said. "With his support, the support of our labor leaders, and with the men and women who have established the New York City Correction Department as the premier correctional department in the nation, I look forward to continuing the great successes we have achieved under the team led by our former Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik."

Commissioner Fraser is a 22-year veteran of the Department of Correction, which he joined as a Correction Officer in 1978. He was promoted to Captain in 1985, and assigned to the James A. Thomas Center, where he was instrumental in transforming the Central Punitive Segregation Unit into a modern, state-of-the-art facility. In May 1987 he was promoted to Assistant Deputy Warden and served as Tour Commander of the Brooklyn Detention Complex. He later commanded the Brooklyn Court Division and the Elmhurst Hospital Prison Ward.

Fraser was promoted to Deputy Warden in 1990, and to Warden in 1994. In March of 1998, he was promoted to Assistant Chief of Division II, where he had overall responsibility for the daily operation of six large facilities on Rikers Island, and supervised approximately four thousand uniformed and civilian staff, as well as eight thousand inmates of all classifications. During that period, he was responsible for developing and implementing the Facility Information System Network, which was initiated department-wide as the universal, centralized system for gathering and recording statistical data for TEAMS Total Efficiency Accountability Management System).

He was promoted to Bureau Chief of Security in August 1998, in which post he purchased state of the art security equipment and promoted training programs designed to reduce violence in the jails, resulting in a safer working environment for both uniformed and civilian staff. With his input, the prestigious Gang Intelligence Unit, which boasts members in the FBI, DEA, HIDTA Task Force, and NYPD intelligence, joined in cooperative crime preventative measures with other law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions both nationally and internationally with positive results.

As Chief of Department, a post he assumed in March 1999, he was the highest-ranking uniform member of the New York City Department of Correction. He commanded sixteen jail facilities, fifteen holding facilities, and four hospital wards. He was responsible for a uniform and civilian workforce of thirteen thousand and approximately one hundred twenty-five thousand inmate admissions yearly, and participated in overseeing an annual budget of eight hundred thirty million dollars. He also played an integral part in developing the use of certain primary indicators, placing measures to monitor their success, and creating quality assurance programs for the TEAMS management system, which earlier this year was a finalist for Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government "Innovations in American Government" Award.

During his career, Commissioner Fraser has also held the positions of union delegate of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, the Correction Captains Association, and as President of the Assistant Deputy Wardens Association.

Commissioner Fraser has been married for twenty-six years to his wife, Anne, a registered nurse. They have two daughters: Kristin, 24, a research editor and law student at St. John's University; and Casey, 22, an elementary school teacher in the New York City public school system.

 

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