A native of Leavenworth, Kansas, Edward F. Reilly, Jr. began serving as chairman of the United States Parole Commission in May 2001, having previously served in the position from 1992 until 1997. Reilly received a BS in political science from the University of Kansas in 1961. He worked for 30 years in the field of real estate insurance and banking and was first elected to public office in 1963. 

 

He served one year as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives and then 28 years as a senator in the Kansas State Senate. In the legislature, Reilly served as assistant majority leader, chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, chairman of the Senate Insurance Subcommittee and vice chairman of the Senate Elections Committee. As chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, which handled most corrections issues, Reilly gained experience in the area of corrections, probation and parole. In 1981, he chaired the Senate/House committee that reviewed the operations of the Kansas Correctional System.

 

Reilly’s law enforcement and corrections experience also included serving on the National Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies; American Justice Institute on federal and state prisons; Community Liaison Committee of the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas; Kansas State Penitentiary, Lansing; and the State Attorney General's Task Force on Drug Education in Kansas.

 

After being appointed to the US Parole Commission in 1992, Reilly served as USPC’s chairman from August 1992 to February 1997, when he was appointed commissioner of the USPC’s National Appeals Board.

 

Since 1967, Reilly has served as an instructor in the International Officers Program at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.