John Wetzel

John Wetzel was appointed Secretary of Corrections for the PA DOC in 2011 by Governor Tom Corbett following a 22-year career in county corrections that culminated in a position of warden at Franklin County Jail where he oversaw a 20 percent population reduction during his tenure. He was reappointed by Governor Tom Wolf in 2015 and again in 2019. During his tenure as Secretary, not only did the DOC experience the end of a 24-year average growth of 1,500 inmates per year but also the first population reduction in PA in over 4 decades, with a total reduction of over 4,200 inmates. He served as Chair of the Council of State Government’s Justice Center’s Executive Board. He is currently the President of the Correctional Leaders Association (CLA), and a member of Harvard’s Executive Session on Community Corrections.