The Honorable Gregory Jackson

Judge Gregory Jackson was appointed to the District of Columbia Superior Court in 2005 by President George W. Bush.

Judge Jackson is a native Washingtonian. He began his academic training in the District of Columbia Public Schools before earning a scholarship to attend high school at the Sidwell Friends School. Upon graduating from Sidwell Friends in 1969, he was awarded an athletic and academic scholarship to attend Rutgers University. Judge Jackson graduated from Rutgers University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Urban Planning. After graduation he joined the staff of Rutgers University as Assistant to the New Brunswick Provost and Student Complaints Officer. In 1975, he enrolled in the Rutgers University Newark School of Law, from which he graduated in 1978.

Mr. Jackson began his legal career in 1978 at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in its Honor Law Graduate Program. In 1986, he was sworn in as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, he served in the Misdemeanor Trial Section, Grand Jury Section, Appellate Division, Felony Trial Section and the Special Proceeding Section.

From 1991 until 1999, Judge Jackson served as Deputy Chief of the Misdemeanor Trial Section, Chief of the General Felony Section and Deputy Chief of the Superior Court Division. As Chief of the General Felony Section in 1997, Judge Jackson was asked to serve as the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s liaison to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program project in the Metropolitan Police Department’s Third District. During his participation in that project, he established what has become known as the Conditions of Release Enforcement (CORE) program, a mechanism for the enforcement of pretrial conditions of release, such as curfews and stay-away orders, and has become an effective law enforcement tool.

In addition to his prosecutorial, administrative and supervisory responsibilities, Judge Jackson was active in the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s community service programs. He organized the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s participation in a student mentoring program sponsored by Richardson Elementary School and the Marshall Heights Community Development Organization for which he received the Department of Justice Volunteer Service Award in 1994. In 1995, he received the Department of Justice’s “Justice for Victims of Crime Award” in recognition of his efforts on behalf of victims of crime and domestic violence.

In 1999, Judge Jackson was appointed General Counsel for the D.C. Department of Corrections. He served as legal counsel to the department during one of the most unique events in correctional history in the United States, the closing of an entire prison system. Judge Jackson provided critical legal advice and guidance as the Department of Corrections successfully closed the Lorton Prison complex, transferred more than 10,000 inmates to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, eliminated three decades of court intervention, and transitioned from a state-like prison system to a municipal detention operation. He received the Department of Corrections’ “Public Service Award” in 2003 and 2004 for his participation in the termination of the court orders and consent decrees by which the federal courts had maintained oversight of the operations of the D.C. Jail for more than thirty years.

While at the Department of Corrections, Judge Jackson maintained his commitment to mentoring area youth. Throughout his tenure at the Department of Corrections he served as a mentor for the Urban Alliance Program that provides academic development, mentoring and employment opportunities for D.C. public high school students.