North Carolina Department of Correction News - September 1999

Master statistician Ken Parker retires

Date of Birth: August 1, 1939
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 145 lbs.
University of Colorado graduation date: 1961 (Physics degree)
University of Oregon graduation date: 1965 (Masters in physics)
University of Virginia graduation date: 1968 (Masters in computer science)
Marriage date: 1968 (Met Sharron at a Greensboro outing club)
First job: Research Scientist at NASA in California
Second job(s): Research assistant and teaching assistant at U. Of Oregon and UVa.
Third job: Burlington Industries
Fourth: Department of Correction
Start date: Thanksgiving 1974
Miles run home from work over 12 years: 3,392 (the distance from Miami to Seattle)
Number of road races: 23
Number of ties owned: 45
parker.jpg (4851 bytes)
Ken Parker spent his career with the Department collecting statistics.

Number of cats: 2
Number of nieces: 1
Number of nephews: 4
How long each parent lived: 93 years
Number of countries traveled: 19 (+ USA)
Number of cars owned: 10 (with a standard deviation of 2)
Number of miles on current car: 110,000

Stats, stats, and more stats, that's what Ken Parker’s job has been for the past 25 years in Research and Planning, and in most of that, as manager. His figures have been crucial in charting the course for the Department, in planning prison beds and calculating probation trends.

Parker said the highlight of his career was working with Judge Tom Ross and Rob Lubitz of the Sentencing Commission, studying the impact of sentencing legislation. They were able to determine how many close, medium and minimum custody beds and how many community punishment programs would be needed when the Structured Sentencing Act took effect. He also looked at the population impact if the prison cap were lifted. He predicted a peak period before the state would see the number of offenders fit the number of bed spaces. All of that occurred, though not exactly as predicted.

"Sometimes I feel the same way about mathematics as the parents did about gardening in the play, The Fantasticks. ‘Plant a carrot, get a carrot, not a Brussels sprout.’ That's why I like vegetables, you know what they are about. Numbers are that way too, nice and orderly," said Parker.

Along with mathematical minds, the Research and Planning folks have volumes of patience like Parker, especially when talking with callers who haven't carefully thought about what they are asking for. For example, there are 15 crimes considered larceny offenses, and 39 in the assault category.

Recidivism is another stickler for Parker. The definition of recidivism varies from county to county, state to state, country to country. Some measure how many offenders return to prison in two years, some three years, others longer. The longer the measurement, the more the recidivists. Some offenders commit new crimes and go to jail or to prison in another state, or are placed on probation and may or may not be counted. If they are counted, some "recidivism" reports are actually a reconviction rate or a rearrest rate.

Too often, the difference in recidivism rates is assumed to be differences in the program effectiveness rather than the nature of the participating offenders. Youthful offenders, for example, have a high recidivism rate regardless of any program. Programs enrolling 40-years-old and over have a low recidivism rate. When comparing one program to another, Parker said, offenders are not equally likely to commit new crimes because offenders are quite different.

"It’s like saying that chicken soup is a better treatment than surgery because most people who use soup (to cure their colds) recover, while many who undergo surgery (for brain cancer) don’t," Parker said.

Parker preferred prison forecasting. In the 1970’s his office received a federal grant to do a master ten-year plan for the department. That was one of his first major projects with DOC.

"We needed to do that because the correctional environment was changing a lot with increased admissions and the threat of lawsuits," Parker said. "Soon we were faced with the South Piedmont Area lawsuit, the 1981 Fair Sentencing Act, and rapidly expanding admissions"

The population projection that would result from the Fair Sentencing Act showed that the prison population would expand beyond the state’s ability to increase capacity. As a result, before the legislation went into effect, the governor and legislative leaders agreed to make changes in the sentence lengths that judges could impose. The result was a stable prison population for a while.

Another project Parker was involved in was the Corrections Futures project, with Crime Commission funding developed by Greg Stahl and led by Sandy Pearce.This project which involved dozens of Departmental personnel will touch every department employee well into the 21st century.

His final project was funded by another grant to work with a small team using Internet technology to make offender data available to DOC staff, to other criminal justice agencies and the public. Although he is officially retired, he continues to work part time under contract to complete this last objective.

Parker has left lasting impressions on many of his co-workers including Chief Deputy Secretary Joe Hamilton who car pooled with him in the early 1980s. "I don't believe he’s had 10 cars," Hamilton quipped, looking at his stats. "Can you imagine riding home in 100 degree heat in a 1961 Comet straight drive with no air conditioning?"

Some remember Parker with a slide rule hanging from his belt in his early correction days. Others will just admire him for rolling out solid figures over and over in his 25 years with DOC, and the quiet, earnest way he did his job.

Mild-mannered as he is, Parker is no shrinking violet. This runner, windsurfer, snow skier, and world traveler will keep stretching body and mind well into retirement. He plans to take classes at Duke University in Byzantine history and art. Some people never stop. u

 


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