Shane Troxler Appointed Deputy Commissioner of DOC
Some changes in the Department of Corrections in Delaware. Bureau of Prisons Chief Shane Troxler has been appointed a Deputy Commissioner of the DOC by Acting Commissioner Terra Taylor. Taylor was recently elevated to Commissioner on a permanent basis upon her confirmation by the State Senate on January 24th – she will be sworn-in as Commissioner in coming weeks.
Additional information from the DOC:
The rank of Deputy Commissioner is the Department’s second-highest position with responsibilities for supervising the Department’s four Bureaus and setting direction through policy development, strategic planning, and decision making.
“Shane Troxler has dedicated his entire career to the Delaware Department of Correction and for more than 20 years has demonstrated the ability to capably lead and inspire people at the facility level and as a member of the Department’s statewide leadership team,” Acting Commissioner Terra Taylor said. “He has earned the deep respect of the men and women of the DOC while fostering a solid working relationship with treatment partners and community stakeholders, and he has leveraged those relationships along with his deep knowledge and experience to improve operations, expand therapeutic treatment and training, and advance our reentry supports. Shane is uniquely positioned to lean into the challenges and opportunities we face and I am pleased to have him by my side as Deputy Commissioner.
“I am humbled and energized to be selected by Acting Commissioner Taylor as Deputy Commissioner of the Delaware Department of Correction,” said incoming Deputy Commissioner Shane Troxler. “Our dedicated employees and contract and community partners play a vital role in keeping the public safe while providing treatment, training, and supervision that opens new positive pathways for thousands of Delawareans who are in our criminal justice system. The Department of Correction has transformed itself to meet these objectives over the many years that I have been privileged to serve, and I appreciate this new leadership opportunity to move the DOC forward and to help guide our continued success in achieving our dual mission of public safety and rehabilitation.”
Troxler joined the DOC in 2003 as a Correctional Officer and upon completing his Academy training was assigned to the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center (JTVCC). He joined the facility’s specialized Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) in 2004 and remained a CERT team member and later served as the Sussex Countywide CERT Team Leader until 2016. In 2005 he earned promotion to Corporal and was assigned to Sussex Correctional Institution (SCI). In 2008 was further promoted Lieutenant and was assigned to Sussex Community Corrections Center (SCCC) where he served as a shift commander, scheduling officer, and grievance officer. In 2012 he was promoted to Staff Lieutenant at SCCC where he was given facility-wide responsibilities over security operations, collaborated at a leadership level with correctional counselors to leverage evidence-based classification tools to facilitate work release assignments, and served on the facility’s working group to secure its initial national accreditation. In 2015 he was promoted to the rank of Deputy Warden and was assigned to Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution (BWCI), where he had responsibility for day-to-day facility operations, staff and equipment management, security operations oversight, budgeting, and ensuring seamless collaboration between security and contracted medical and behavioral healthcare providers. While at BWCI he also served as Acting Warden for more than six months.
In 2018, Troxler joined the DOC’s senior leadership team in Dover as Deputy Bureau Chief of Prisons and was later appointed Bureau Chief of Prisons in 2019. During this period of time with statewide responsibility over each of Delaware’s four state prison facilities Troxler has focused, in addition to navigating the state’s prison system through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, on enhancing and modernizing safety and security to better serve officers, staff, and incarcerated individuals, improving facility operations to meet offender housing and treatment needs, expanding educational and training programs, and securing and maintaining national accreditation. Specific accomplishments while serving as Deputy Chief and Chief of Prisons include:
- Established the DOC’s statewide Intelligence Operations Center, operated by the Special Operations Group within the Bureau of Prisons. The IOC positioned the DOC with new cutting-edge technology and human resources to identify security threats from across facilities, assess them, and proactively act to mitigate them.
- Identified and implemented more than three dozen reforms, including critical investments in cameras and better communication and information-sharing within and across Delaware’s correctional facilities, following the 2017 inmate uprising at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
- Completed a years-long effort to end the use of restrictive housing as a disciplinary measure in the state’s prison facilities. It eliminated restrictive housing, commonly known as solitary confinement, as part of its commitment to employ modern evidence-based practices to create safe prison environments for officers, healthcare providers, counselors, and inmates
- Expanding job training certification for in-demand career fields across all prison facilities. These include new vocational training programs for CDL (Commercial Driver’s License), construction skills certifications, and culinary arts programs, along with social service-oriented trainings for certified peer and home health aides, and multiple post-secondary degree programs launched through partnerships with local institutions of higher education.
- Improved the inmate grievance process through a comprehensive review that empowered officers and staff to intervene to resolve emerging issues at the unit level, enhanced information-sharing with incarcerated individuals, and expanded training for staff.
- Achieved national accreditation through the American Correctional Association for all state prison facilities for the first time in Delaware history.
As Deputy Commissioner, Troxler will play a leading role in implementing Commissioner Taylor’s goals for the Department of Correction which include continued investments in technology to support safety and security, staff training and wellness, expanded evidence-based programming and treatment to support addiction recovery health, and rehabilitation for offenders, and educational and vocational training and deeper collaboration with government and community reentry supports to drive employment and career opportunities and reentry success for individuals returning to the community from incarceration and probation supervision.
Deputy Commissioner Troxler earned his Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Chowan College in Murfreesboro, NC. He has completed hundreds of hours of specialized training, including Prison Security Audit Training, Situational Leadership, Sex Crime Investigations, and Motivational Interviewing, has participated in numerous leadership development programs, and has earned multiple DOC recognition awards for outstanding service and leadership.
