Martha King

Martha W. King is the Executive Director of the New York City Board of Correction, which establishes and ensures compliance with minimum standards regulating the conditions of confinement and correctional health and mental health care in the City’s jails, including Riker's Island. One of the oldest permanent correctional oversight agencies in the country, the Board monitors conditions in the City's jails, addresses issues related to inmate safety and health care, evaluates the performance of the Department of Correction, reviews inmate and employee grievances, and makes recommendations in areas of correctional planning. She recently reorganized the agency and doubled its staff. Prior to this role, she was a criminal justice and education policy advisor to the First Deputy Mayor of New York City. Martha began her career at the largest alternative to incarceration program in New York City, the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services (CASES) and has held policy positions at the After-School Corporation, the Vera Institute of Justice, and the New Jersey Office of Management and Budget. She has dual master’s degrees (Master of Public Affairs and Urban and Regional Planning, MPA-URP) from the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and a B.A. in African American Studies from Wesleyan University. She has completed coursework for a doctorate in sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.