Sheriff

The Sheriff's Biography

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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.

Sheriff 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, Sheriff 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 as the warden of federal prisons in Texarkana, Texas, Manchester, Kentucky and Memphis, Tennessee. Upon his retirement he was appointed Director of the Shelby County Division of Corrections, serving there until his election as Sheriff in 2002.

Re-elected to his second term in 2006, Sheriff Luttrell has worked hard to ensure that integrity is maintained within the department and fiscal responsibility is continually exercised. The jail has been removed from judicial oversight and a crime abatement program initiated to address the community’s public safety concerns. The Shelby County Jail has been accredited by the American Correctional Association.

Sheriff 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, 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 was selected as Lawman of the Year for the Kiwanis’ Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee Districts.

Mark Luttrell and his wife, Pat, have been married 38 years and have three children; Lynnette, Mark and Margaret and three grandchildren.