Ron Holvey retired in February 2007 after a 26-year career with the New Jersey Department of Corrections.  During his last 13 years with the department he was responsible for the establishment and development of the Gang Intelligence Section of the Special Investigations Division (SID). Mr. Holvey is closely involved in gang awareness training for law enforcement, as well as the public, specializing in instructing parents, teachers, children and young adults about gangs and their inherent dangers.

Mr. Holvey was instrumental in the development and continued implementation of the department’s highly successful Security Threat Group Management Unit (STGMU) at Northern State Prison.  STGMU is a three-phase program, which targets “core” members of gangs, which have been designated as Security Threat Groups by the New Jersey Department of Corrections.  Since the opening of STGMU on March 4, 1998 the department has realized a 42% drop in assaults on staff and an 84% reduction in organized violent behavior by inmates statewide. 

In November, 2001 he was responsible for the implementation of the Gang Awareness & Prevention Program (GAPP).  GAPP utilizes the experiences of inmates who have successfully completed the STGMU program and are now ex-gang members.  These ex-gang members relate their negative choices to our youth in an attempt to prevent the further growth of gangs.  To date, GAPP has been presented to over 80,000 youth in more than 750 New Jersey schools and community events.   So successful is this program that the New Jersey Department of Corrections received a $145,000 grant from the United States Bureau of Justice Assistance to help fund the program.

Additionally, Principal Investigator Holvey assisted in the development of the Gang Reduction through Aggressive Supervision of Parole (GRASP) Program.  GRASP is a cooperative effort between three law enforcement entities, the New Jersey State Parole Board, the Department of Corrections and the New Jersey State Police.  This initiative consists of a Parole Officer, NJDOC SID Investigator and a State Police Street Gang Unit Detective who work together to target paroled gang members as a means of developing gang-related criminal investigations and intelligence, and enforce special conditions of parole.  Currently, GRASP is underway throughout New Jersey. 

Mr. Holvey has provided technical assistance to several states, to include Oregon, North Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, in the field of prison gang management and is frequently called upon as an expert witness in criminal and civil proceedings involving gangs and security threat groups.  He has worked as a consultant for the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Youth Gang Center (NYGC) and Multi-jurisdictional Counter-drug Task Force Training Center (MCTFT).  He assisted in the development of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association “Certified Gang Professional” (CGP) program.  Mr. Holvey is a member of several national and local gang investigators associations and task forces and currently serves as Vice-President of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association.