Eldon Vail

 Secretary, Department of Corrections

 

On January 9, 2008, Governor Chris Gregoire appointed Eldon Vail Secretary of the Washington Department of Corrections.

Mr. Vail’s career in adult and juvenile corrections spans three decades.  He began his career as a counselor in the Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration and in 1979 moved to adult corrections.

Mr. Vail has worked at seven correctional institutions in this state, serving as Superintendent of two of them, the Washington Corrections Center for Women and McNeil Island Corrections Center.  He remained as Superintendent at McNeil until 1994.

From 1994 until April 2006, Mr. Vail held several executive-level positions within the Washington Department of Corrections, serving the last seven years of the Locke administration as the Deputy Secretary of the Office of Correctional Operations.  In April 2006, he retired from the Department as Deputy Secretary of the Prisons Division and then returned to the Department as Interim Secretary in November of 2007.

Mr. Vail has focused his career on making certain the state of Washington has a safe, secure, and humane corrections system, believing that the demonstration of the legitimate use of authority to be the most effective tool in maintaining safe correctional environments.  He has also been an advocate for diversity and a champion for the needs of the children and families of the incarcerated.  He has a strong background in labor relations and insists his administrators strive for the same.

Mr. Vail received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1973 from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, and did graduate work in public administration at the same college. 

Mr. Vail has served as a guest speaker, leadership trainer, author and reviewer of publications for the National Institute of Corrections. His commitment to staff training led former Governor Locke to appoint him to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, where he served from 2002 to 2006.  He was reappointed to the Commission by Governor Gregoire in 2008.