Former Director of Research in the Massachusetts Department of Correction During the Boone and Hall Administrations

Frank Carney, long a proponent of evidence-based policy and practice in criminal justice, retired as Executive Director of the Administrative Office of the Trial Court in 2013, where he assisted the Chief Justice for Administration and Management on policy and planning matters. Prior to that, he served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission (1994-2003), working on the development of sentencing guidelines. Before that, he was Executive Director of the Massachusetts Criminal History Systems Board (1986-1994), where he was responsible for administering the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), and for overseeing the access and dissemination of Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI). Prior to that, he was Director of Research for the Massachusetts Department of Correction (1972-1986), overseeing research and statistical reporting operations, and Social Science Research Specialist (1966-1970), helping to design a program of research and evaluation in the DOC.

Dr. Carney received his B.A. in Sociology from Boston College in 1963 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Tufts University in 1970 and 1974, respectively. He was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Boston University, Metropolitan College, Department of Applied Social Science (1985-2018), teaching courses on Corrections and Youth Crime Problems in the classroom and in the online graduate program.

At the national level, he served as Massachusetts representative (1986-1996) and National Chair (1992-1996) of SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics.