New Faces
President Jeremy Travis recently appointed Dr. Michael Steinman as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dr. Berenecea Johnson Eanes as Vice President for Student Development.

Dr. Steinman, who received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago, has a rich, varied and deep history of criminal justice scholarship and academic administration. He has written extensively on a variety of criminal justice issues including the police response to domestic violence, recidivism rates among batterers, police behavior, and police accountability. His most recent work focuses on the psychological impact that witnessing violence has on children. He joins the College after serving for five years as Associate Provost and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Massachusetts. Prior to his appointment at the University of Massachusetts, Steinman held the position of Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “I can’t think of a more exciting prospect than working at John Jay,” said Steinman.

Dr. Johnson Easnes also is a strong and seasoned administrator and academician. Prior to her appointment at John Jay, she served as Associate Dean of Students for Diversity and Accessibility at Hamilton College. Previously she held the positions of Director of the Center for Academic Support and Enhancement at Morehouse College and Associate Director of the Doctoral Program in the School of Social Work at Columbia University. She received a MSW from Boston University and PhD from Clark Atlanta University. “It is a great pleasure to become a member of such a dedicated and dynamic community of educators,” she noted.

Carole Eady was one of ten John Jay International Study Ambassadors, who attended the prestigious Salzburg Seminar last spring. With its highly competitive selection process, the International Study Program aims to increase college students awareness of global issues and what it means to be a “global citizen.” Eady’s project topic was reducing the supply of drugs from Afghanistan and Colombia. The topic, she says, “was right up my alley.” Prior to attending John Jay, Eady had been homeless for 12 years and had been addicted to drugs and alcohol. Life on the streets was brutal to say the least. She successfully went through a number of treatment programs and found that she wanted to “give something back” to those who have substance abuse problems by becoming a counselor. She was given a pamphlet about John Jay’s addiction studies program that offered the Credential in Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (CASAC) from New York State. Eady subsequently entered the associate’s degree program at John Jay. “I was motivated, received great grades and found myself on the Dean’s List so I decided to go on for my BA.” She was so successful in her academic pursuits that Professor Matthew Johnson of the Psychology Department encouraged her to enter the BA/MA program, which she completed in June. Also attending the International Study Ambassadors program were: Megan Burgess, Christian Cardona, Alexis Bienvenido Matos-Dias, Raymond Ratti, Kymberli Roberts, Alicia Thompson, Jin Reu Zhang, Ochuko Kuejubola, and Maria Martinez.

Steven Conry (AS ’87, BA/MA ’92)

Steven Conry has spent more than two decades in New York City jails – working in them that is.

In his 23-year career with the New York City Department of Correction (NYDOC), Conry has held just about every position possible. Starting out as a correctional officer, he subsequently was a warden, assistant divisional chief, chief of management and planning, and chief of security. When he left the NYDOC a few months ago, he was responsible for 19 facilities, 9,500 uniformed officers, 1,000 civilian staff, 100,000 inmates with over a half-million visitors each year.

Conry is now Vice President of Operations for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a company that pioneered the private corrections industry back in the 1980s. Headquartered in Nashville, where Conry now resides, the company boasts that it is the fifth largest correctional system in the nation, behind only the federal government and four states. Conry is in charge of 22 of CCA’s 63 facilities.

He credits his advancement to the education he received at John Jay. He initially came to the College because the course schedule accommodated rotating shifts and, as a correctional officer, he had a lot of overtime. “The course work and the faculty all really added a great deal to my knowledge base and to my ability to go further in this field than I ever thought I would,” he says. “My education opened my eyes to larger criminal justice issues than I had been dealing with as a correctional officer and supervisor.”

One of the larger issues that Conry has witnessed is the professionalizing of the field of corrections. He believes that the increase in training that now routinely occurs and the adherence to professional procedures and accreditation standards has made a tremendous difference in the industry. He’s been involved in corrections long enough to have seen the pendulum swing from the “warehousing mode” of incarceration back to one that has a “renewed interest in meeting the needs of the inmates so that they are better able to become productive citizens when they are released. The focus on reentry is exciting and really needs to be a major focus.”

Conry believes that the toughest job in the correctional system, whether it is in a public facility or a private one, is the correctional officer working in the cell block with the inmates for 8 to 16 hours a day. As unarmed officers, “they go in there with their mind being their most critical weapon.”

He doesn’t see any substantial differences between public and private corrections. “We are driven by the same goals -- to operate the safest and most secure facilities we can and to follow the same accreditation standards by which public facilities are measured. The private sector is flexible enough to meet various needs of governmental agencies as their demand for prison services increases.”

Whether in New York or in Nashville, Conry says that whenever he mentions that he’s a graduate of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, “People always raise an eye in recognition. It’s a well known and respected brand at this point. And when I say I majored in public administration, they know that the program is award-winning and notable in and of itself.”