Michigan Department of Corrections

Patricia L. Caruso is the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections which houses more than 48,000 prisoners in 43 prisons and 11 camps across the state.  The field operations division of the department oversees approximately 55,000 probationers and 18,000 parolees.

Director Caruso’s focus for the Michigan Department of Corrections is on controlling prison growth and reserving expensive prison beds for the most violent and dangerous offenders. Initiatives aimed at re-thinking and re-emphasizing the use of community corrections approaches have slowed new prison commitments and reduced the number of returning technical parole violators. A major component of this effort is the Department’s recently launched Prisoner Re-entry Initiative and its emphasis on creating new collaborative approaches with public, private, state and local agencies to better prepare prisoners for release and re-entry into our communities.  The goal, ultimately, will be the transition of the offender coming from the community to prison and then back to the community as a single integrated continuum.

Director Caruso joined the Department of Corrections in 1988 as assistant business manager of Kinross Correctional Facility. She served as business manager at Hiawatha Correctional Facility and as correctional facility manager for the Chippewa correctional facilities where she was in charge of facility accounting, prisoner accounting, procurement, the warehouse, prisoner stores and other business functions.

In 1991 she was named warden of the Chippewa Correctional Facility, a multi-level prison and the Straits Correctional Facility, a minimum-security prison. The facilities housed a total of 2,300 male felons. She held that position for more than nine years and in 2000 was appointed as one of three regional prison administrators for the Correctional Facilities Administration (CFA), overseeing 13 prisons and eight camps from Saginaw to the tip of the Upper Peninsula.  Prior to her appointment as Director, Caruso held the post of CFA Deputy Director.

Director Caruso also served for several years in the 1980s as chief administrative officer and controller of Chippewa County. 

The Director holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from Lake Superior State University. 

For more information about the Michigan Department of Corrections, visit http://www.michigan.gov/corrections.