Dr. Duke Terrell has over 20 years experience as a correctional psychologist and administrator with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  Currently, he is Warden at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.  He earned a B.A. degree in psychology and music theory at the University of Alabama, an M.S. degree in clinical psychology at the University of South Alabama, and a Ph.D. in psychology at Auburn University in 1987.  His program of study was experimental psychology with an emphasis in the experimental analysis of behavior.  Dr. Terrell first worked as a research psychologist affiliated with the Army Research Institute in Fort Rucker, Alabama, conducting research and development of part-task training methods for the army aviation school.  Later, he joined the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a staff psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna, Florida, where he was promoted to Chief Psychologist.  Dr. Terrell then served as the Senior Psychology Examiner in the Bureau’s Program Review Division in Washington DC, before assuming the position of Chief Psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, which housed one of the Bureau’s psychiatric in-patient referral centers.  As a prison administrator, Dr. Terrell served as Associate Warden of Mental Health at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, in Springfield, Missouri, and he has served as Warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terminal Island, California; the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas; the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota; and the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, before assuming his current position in Brooklyn.

Dr. Terrell’s clinical and research interests as a psychologist are in the area of prevention and treatment of self-injurious and suicidal behavior of inmates.  As an administrator he is interested in the recruitment, training, and development of professional correctional staff. 

Last updated January 21, 2010.