Veteran employee to head Corrections Department

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – Calling her the “most on-the-ground experienced” person ever to hold the job, Gov. Andy Beshear named Cookie Crews to head the Department of Corrections.

“Cookie Crews knows our corrections system and is well suited to lead this department during a trying time for the agency, our employees and the inmates,” Beshear said, of Crews, a 36-year veteran of the department who has headed four prisons and for the last eight years overseen the division that provides health care to inmates.

That recent experience will be critical as the state continues to battle the coronavirus, especially an outbreak at Green River Correctional Facility.

“She is a dedicated, experienced leader who has worked at every level of the agency,” Beshear stated.

“I’m incredibly honored to accept this role,” said Crews. “To lead the agency I’ve devoted my entire adult life to is a dream come true. I’m excited to guide the Department of Corrections and the amazing group of corrections professionals who make up Kentucky DOC.”

She brings small-town roots to the position. She’s a native of the small town of Hardy in Pike County and began her career in January 1984 as a correctional officer at the Kentucky Correctional Institution for Women.

She’s been a warden at KCIW, the Kentucky State Reformatory, Frankfort Career Development Center, and Luther Luckett Correctional Complex.

Randy White, a 24-year veteran of the Kentucky DOC who has served as acting commissioner since February, will resume his role as deputy commissioner overseeing primarily the state’s prisons.