2026 E.R. Cass Award Recipients

Peter Grande is a Certified Correctional Executive and retired US Army Military Police Corps Lieutenant Colonel. He enlisted in 1974 as a correctional specialist and was promoted up the ranks to positions including Physical Security Chief-Europe, Warden, and Military Correctional Complex Chief of Staff. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Arts in Criminology and Corrections from Sam Houston State University. An American Correctional Association member since 1990, he currently serves on the

Tony Parker, former Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) and Past President of the American Correctional Association, possesses over 42 years of experience in corrections. Mr. Parker began his correctional career at Lake County Regional Correctional Facility in 1983 as a Correctional Officer, advancing through various roles including Warden at Northwest Correctional Complex (2003–2006), Warden at West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tennessee (2006–2008), and again as Warden at Northwest Correctional Complex (2008). In April 2011, he was appointed Correctional Administrator of Tennessee’s West Region, and in September 2012, he became Assistant Commissioner of Prisons, supervising prison operations and overseeing departmental security and offender management. In June 2016, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam appointed Mr. Parker as Commissioner of the TDOC; he was subsequently reappointed as Tennessee’s Correction Commissioner in 2018 by Governor Bill Lee. Tony retired as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction on December 1, 2021. From 2021 to 2023, Mr. Parker served as President of the American Correctional Association. Tony is presently active in the correctional industry, undertaking multiple corporate advisory positions within the correctional sector.
Mr. Parker holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Master of Arts in Security Studies with an emphasis in Homeland Security from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in Monterey, California. His master’s thesis, titled "Establishing a Deradicalization/Disengagement Model for America’s Correctional Facilities: Recommendations for Countering Prison Radicalization," was published by NPS in 2013: http://www.hsdl.org/?view&did=736334. In 2015, Mr. Parker testified before the Congressional Homeland Security Committee regarding his thesis and recommendations for a deradicalization model for U.S. prisons.
He resides in Union City, Tennessee, with his wife, Misty, and has three children: Madison, Mia, and J’Coy.