Anthony J. Annucci
Commissioner
New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision

Anthony J. Annucci was named the Acting Commissioner for the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, effective May 1, 2013. He has been employed with the Department for more than 36 years, and he started his career in 1984 as Deputy Counsel. He then rose to become Deputy Commissioner and Counsel in 1989, and later, Executive Deputy Commissioner in 2007. 

Before joining the Department, he worked for four years as a Law Secretary to a Kings County Acting Supreme Court Judge, who sat in Criminal Term.  Prior to his enrollment in Law School in 1977, he had worked first, as an Investigator with the State Senate Select Committee on Crime, and then as a Researcher for the Policy Sciences Center, studying illegal gambling and loan sharking in New York City.  His entire career within the field of criminal justice now spans more than 44 years.   

As the Acting Commissioner for the Department, he oversees an agency with 52 correctional facilities, and approximately 32,000 incarcerated individuals, 35,000 parolees and 27,000 staff. The combined annual operations and capital budget for the Department is approximately $3.3 billion. Among the most notable program initiatives he advanced are alternatives to segregated confinement, new medication assisted treatment capability, and a dramatic expansion of college programming.   

In his 36 plus years with the Department, Mr. Annucci has drafted legislation that has been signed into law by five different Governors. As of 2021, the total prison cost avoidance savings, resulting from legislation he either wrote entirely, or assisted in the drafting, are close to $3 billion.     

Mr. Annucci is a member of the American Correctional Association and is also a regular lecturer on topics including prison operations and sentencing laws. He has twice been recognized by the New York State Bar Association: once for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Corrections, and the other for Excellence in Public Service. He earned his B.S in Psychology at Fordham University, his M.A. in Criminal Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and his Juris Doctor at Brooklyn Law School. He grew up in Brooklyn, is married and is also an accomplished pianist.

Updated 3/10/2021