Bio

Sheriff Mark Luttrell was born in Jackson, Tennessee and spent his early years in Bells, Tennessee.  He moved to Memphis as a teenager and graduated from Bartlett High School.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Union University and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Memphis.

Mark Luttrell’s first job after college was teaching history at Bradford County High School, Starke, Florida.  He served two years in the Army, stationed in Louisiana, Texas and Germany.  Returning to Memphis, Mark Luttrell began his career in criminal justice at the Shelby County Penal Farm serving as the vocational training director.  He joined the United States Bureau of Prisons in 1977 and served with that organization until his retirement in 1999.  The last ten years were spent as the warden of federal prisons in Texarkana, TX; Manchester, KY and Memphis, TN. Upon his retirement he was appointed Director of the Shelby County Division of Corrections, serving there until his election as Sheriff in 2002.

As Sheriff, Mark Luttrell immediately set out to alter the culture of the Sheriff’s Office.  During his tenure, Mark Luttrell has led the Sheriff’s Office from the oversight of the Federal Court and Department of Justice by going well beyond meeting the minimum standards.  Both the men and women’s jail facilities received national accreditation from the American Correctional Association.  Nationwide, fewer than 5% of  jails have achieved this accreditation.  At the same time, the medical units for both facilities earned accreditation from the National Commission on Health.  Furthermore, the Law Enforcement Division earned national accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies.  All of the accomplishments were achieved while reducing the personnel budget by $30 million a year to make a more efficient and effective Sheriff’s Office.

Mark Luttrell received the prestigious “Ferris E. Lucas Award for Sheriff of the Year-2009” by the National Sheriffs’ Association.  He was specifically recognized for his oversight of the daily operations and financial accountability of the Sheriff’s Office and for obtaining national accreditation for the Law Enforcement, Jail and Jail Medical Divisions.

Mark Luttrell is a member of the Germantown Kiwanis Club and serves as a board member of the Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission, Operation Safe Community, Memphis Second Chance, University of Memphis Arts and Sciences Advisory and Union University Alumni Advisory.  He is a Leadership Memphis graduate and a distinguished recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award of the University of Memphis, College of Arts and Sciences.  He is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute (NEI).  He was selected as Lawman of the Year for the Kiwanis’ Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee Districts.

Mark Luttrell and his wife, Pat, have three children and five grandchildren.