Commissioner's Biography

On April 14, 2005, Jane E. Tewksbury was named as the Commissioner of the Department of Youth Services. During her tenure, Commissioner Tewksbury has initiated reform efforts in several areas of the agency’s operation. One of her primary goals is to reform the pre-trial detention system to create a multi-tiered system of detention alternatives and diversion programs with a range of security levels and program services that will better serve the needs of court-involved youth.

Other reform efforts have been undertaken to improve the quality of services for youth in DYS care. Commissioner Tewksbury directed a realignment of the continuum of services for females so that young women held on bail are served closer to their home communities; a more comprehensive system of assessing newly committed females is in place; and young women in the community are receiving gender-specific services in settings that are appropriate to their needs. The Department will undertake a similar effort to ensure that the continuum of services for young men is meeting their needs.

Under the direction of Commissioner Tewksbury, the agency began reforming its service delivery plan for youth in the community. DYS issued a new Casework Reference Guide, which calls for a 90, 60 and 30-day review of all clients prior to release from secure and residential programs. This pre-release review allows for a more careful balancing of the Department’s dual mission to protect public safety through the rehabilitation of the youth committed to its care and custody.

Finally, Commissioner Tewksbury has begun a Workforce Development Initiative. The goal is to create a juvenile justice career path by providing comprehensive professional development opportunities and other incentive programs.

Commissioner Tewksbury also sits on the Board of Directors of the Children’s Trust Fund which leads statewide efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect by supporting parents and strengthening families.

Commissioner Tewksbury has served in a variety of human service and criminal justice-related positions throughout her legal career including service as an Assistant Attorney General and an Assistant District Attorney.  During her tenure at the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office Ms. Tewksbury established the office’s nationally recognized priority unit for the prosecution of serious and habitual violent juvenile offenders.

Selected in 1993 as a Fellow in the Children and Family Fellowship of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Commissioner Tewksbury was deployed to the Arkansas Department of Juvenile Justice and later to the Maryland Subcabinet on Children, Youth and Families, to work on state level systems reform efforts affecting disadvantaged children and families.

As a member of the 1992 Juvenile Justice Commission of the Supreme Judicial Court, Ms. Tewksbury co-chaired the CHINS Subcommittee which recommended a repeal of the state’s CHINS law, an issue now before the Massachusetts State Legislature. 

Ms. Tewksbury served as the Legal Counsel to the Attorney General and as the General Counsel for a $70 million dollar private provider before becoming the Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Public Safety in 2003.  She was later appointed as the Commonwealth’s first Undersecretary for Forensic Services overseeing the State Police Crime Lab, the Medical Examiner’s office, the Criminal History Systems Board and the state’s emergency 911 system.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School and Harvard/Radcliffe College, Commissioner Tewksbury has considerable teaching and speaking experience and has published a number of legal articles on the rights of individuals with disabilities, elder abuse and domestic violence.