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Oriana House has new executive vice president
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: March 25, 2021
Mike Randle first joined the Oriana House leadership team in 2010 – first as program manager of the Cuyahoga County Community Based Correctional Facility and most recently as the regional vice president of correctional programming in Summit County.
In his new role, he will be responsible for the overall operation and management of residential, nonresidential, and diversionary community corrections programs including cognitive skills, treatment, employment and education programming. Randle will also oversee the development and implementation of new programs.
He previously worked at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction as a mental health administrator, warden, deputy director of business administration and assistant director for the agency. Randle left ODRC when he was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Correction.
He was promoted to executive vice president at Oriana House after Anne Connell-Freund retired Jan. 29.
“Oriana House is fortunate to have Mike’s extensive experience in corrections and leadership skills. His advocacy for offender rehabilitation is an asset on the local, state, and national level.” Oriana House President/CEO James Lawrence said. “Our executive team has worked tirelessly to guide us through the current challenges of the pandemic and to help build Oriana House’s 40-year history. Their efforts and the daily commitment of our staff put us in an excellent position to continue providing rehabilitation and addiction treatment services for years to come.”
Oriana House is a private, nonprofit agency that provides community corrections, substance abuse treatment, and mental health services. It is headquartered in Akron and has facilities throughout the state.
Randle said his immediate goal is to continue what Oriana House is doing in terms of being able to help people with chemical dependency challenges, people coming home from incarceration and helping people with mental health challenges.
“I just want to continue doing the work this agency has been doing for the last 40 years and do it at the same level of excellence,” he said.
Another priority is to continue develop positive collaborations with various community organizations.
“The third goal is to continue identifying innovative ways of delivering the services we provide,” Randle said. “As bad as the pandemic has been, one of the things we’ve all learned is how to do things differently - how to use technology to deliver treatment services and cognitive skills training, all those things we previously thought you had to be in front of a person to deliver. Figuring out the best technology moving forward is really important.”
Randle added that the biggest issue he sees in chemical dependency remains the opioid epidemic.
“With COVID drawing a lot of the attention, a lot of people don’t realize the opioid epidemic is still raging out here. And it’s still hurting a lot of people. That continues to be a huge problem,” he said. “Methamphetamine has also crept back in because a lot of people were afraid of overdosing on opiates, so they felt meth was a little bit safer.”
On the mental health side, Randle said he will be busy trying to find solutions to the need for supportive housing options.
“It’s a tall challenge, but we’re trying to get better at linking people post crisis right there on the spot with resources after they come from a short-term intervention,” he said. “After detox, we need to be able to give them an immediate warm hand-off into a residential bed. Because of wait lists, they often don’t come back.”
Randle received his bachelor’s degree in criminology from The Ohio State University and his master’s in business administration from Ashland University.
He is a member of American Correctional Association, National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice (NABCJ), North American Association of Wardens and Superintendents, and Ohio Community Corrections Association, having served as president 2017-2019.
Randle is the 2019 recipient of the NABCJ Jonathan Jasper Wright Award and is currently the chair of the Cleveland affiliate of the NABCJ. He also serves on the board of the International Association of Community Corrections.
Randle is routinely requested to provide expert testimony on legislative issues, present at various conferences, and is a consultant on various correctional issues.