John Ozmint, Director

Jon Ozmint lives and practices law in Greenville, South Carolina. He is the former director of the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), former Deputy Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor of the State Grand Jury, former General Counsel for the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and a former Assistant Solicitor. He is a veteran and retired as a Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. His final military billet was as Reserve Legislative Counsel, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Readiness and Logistics. He has served as chairman of the Staff Safety Committee for the American Correctional Association and of the Legal, Legislative and Policy Committee of the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA), now the Correctional Leaders Association (CLA). He led ASCA’s national fight for cell phone interdiction technology and was instrumental in representing the association in negotiations on and public policy responses to the Prison Rape Elimination Act. He was the first former director to serve on the CLA Board. In 2021 Jon received the Louis Wainwright Award recognizing continuing, outstanding contributions to corrections as a former director.

In 2003, during his first year as director of SCDC, Jon visited the Inmate Seminary at Angola Prison in Louisiana and met Warden Burl Cain. Shortly thereafter, SCDC partnered with Columbia International University (CIU) to establish the CIU Prison Initiative, an accredited seminary program that graduates inmate lay-ministers who serve in numerous capacities in all SCDC prisons. 

Jon has testified numerous times in the South Carolina State House, on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., and in other states across the nation. He has served on various boards and commissions, including the South Carolina Sentencing Reform Commission, the South Carolina Sentencing Reform Oversight Commission, six years on the Oliver Gospel Mission Board of Directors, Persevere, a national non-profit focusing on preparing offenders for meaningful careers upon re-entry, and the Board of Directors for the SC Center for Fathers and Families. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for JUMPSTART South Carolina, the largest and most successful reentry partner in South Carolina. 

Jon and his wife, Luanne, have four children and six grandchildren, with more on the way. Jon and Luanne attend church in Greenville. Jon is an average hunter, a decent yard man, and a now-retired runner, having completed six marathons.