DORA B. SCHRIRO is a career public servant who has served as an executive-level administrator, policy maker, and homeland security advisor. Dr. Schriro led three state and two city criminal justice agencies and a federal office in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. She has earned a reputation for innovation, advocacy, and economy.
Dr. Schriro was the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, a state enforcement agency that includes the state police, homeland security, emergency management, crime labs and forensic services, statewide 911, and police and fire training academies.
from 2014 through 2018 and served concurrently as Connecticut’s Homeland Security Advisor from 2016 through 2018. Her DHS security clearance was Top Secret.
Dr. Schriro previously served as Director of the Missouri and Arizona Departments of Corrections. Schriro was also Warden and later, Commissioner of the St. Louis City Division of Corrections as well as Assistant Commissioner prior to appointment as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction.
Additionally, Dr. Schriro served as Special Advisor to DHS Secretary Napolitano and was the founding Director of the ICE Office of Detention Policy and Planning. During her tenure at DHS, she authored, A Report on the Preliminary Assessment of ICE Detention Policies and Practices: A Recommended Course of Action for Systems Reforms, DHS’ template for improving the nation’s immigration detention system.
Schriro is the only woman to lead three state systems in the criminal justice arena and the first to have led these three agencies. She has taught graduate criminal justice and Correction law courses throughout her career and publishes in the areas of immigration and corrections innovation and systems reform.
Her recent publications include ICE Detention Standards: A Guide For Family & Friends of Individuals in ICE Detention, ABA, Commission on Immigration (March 2023), ICE Detention Standards: Immigration Detention Facilities’ Responsibilities and Detained Individuals’ Rights: A Guide for Practitioners, ABA Commission on Immigration (December 9, 2022), and On the Other Side of the Looking Glass: COVID-19 Care in Immigration Detention, MDPI, Soc. Sci. 2021, 10(10), Access to Counsel in Immigration Detention in the Time of COVID-19, A Guide to ICE PBNDS 2011 Detention Standards for Dedicated Facilities with ICE COVID-19 Modifications, ABA Commission on Immigration (2019), and Access to Counsel in Immigration Detention in the Time of COVID-19, A Guide to ICE NDS 2019 Detention Standards for Nondedicated Facilities with ICE COVID-19 Modifications, ABA Commission on Immigration (2019).
Dr. Schriro was recognized by her peers as the country’s top correctional administrator in 1999; received the National Governors Association Distinguished Service to State Government Award in 2006; earned the Innovations in American Government Award for Arizona’s comprehensive pre-release strategy, Getting Ready, in 2008, the first Corrections-based reform to do so; and was presented with the U.S. Department of Justice Allied Professional Award in 2012 for exceptional service to crime victims. Schriro currently serves on the boards of the ABA Commission on Immigration and the Women’s Refugee Commission. Dr. Schriro is a graduate of Northeastern University (BA cum laude), University of Massachusetts-Boston (MS), Columbia University (EdD), and St. Louis University (JD).
Today, Dr. Schriro is the Principal of Dora B Schriro Consulting Services LLC, a Corrections and an Immigration Detention Expert, focusing on remediation, innovation, and systems reform. Clients include the California Department of Justice, Federal Public Defenders-Capital Habeas Unit, Hampton County Massachusetts Sheriff’s Department, Disabilities Rights California, St. Louis University School of Law Clinic, American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, Human Rights First, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, Transgender Law Center, Promise of Justice Initiative, Arch City Defenders and numerous law firms.