Second time’s the charm – Gilkison tabbed for top RSW job

Following a closed meeting at the March 23 RSW Jail Authority Board meeting, Assistant Superintendent Russ Gilkison was elevated to the facility’s top job.  The vote to appoint Gilkison superintendent to replace recently resigned William Wilson was unanimous.  Gilkison’s appointment will take effect tomorrow (Monday, March 27) at a salary of $90,749.

Russ Gilkison, right background, listens as Superintendent William Wilson gives his regular Board meeting update to the RSW Authority. Now it will be Gilkison’s turn, again, to offer those updates. Photo/Roger Bianchini

Gilkison will be the facility’s third superintendent.  Robert Mulligan was hired, effective June 1, 2013.  After overseeing a year of preparatory work of transitioning from three county jails to a regional facility, Mulligan unexpectedly announced his retirement from law enforcement on June 30, 2014.  That was one day from the scheduled opening of RSW, and several weeks after inmates from Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Warren Counties were being transferred into the new facility.

Assistant Superintendent Gilkison was named acting superintendent and did apply for the job permanently at that time.  Mulligan said of Gilkison unexpectedly taking over as acting superintendent just as the facility was poised to open, “They’ll be fine without me; Gilkison’s a good guy, he trained to do the job – they’ll be fine.”

The RSW Board press release announcing that unexpected 2014 transition said of Gilkison, “Russ … has over sixteen years’ experience as a law enforcement professional; six of those as an executive level manager for the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office as the Assistant Division Commander of the Corrections Court Services Division.”

Well, you can now add two years of experience as Assistant Superintendent at RSW to those 16 years, including several months as acting superintendent.  Gilkison took William Wilson’s appointment as permanent replacement for Mulligan well, noting that he respected Wilson with whom he had past experience; and acknowledging Wilson’s longer experience in top criminal justice facility management.  The two appeared to work well together during Wilson’s two-plus years on the job.

As Mulligan did before him, Wilson cited family considerations in announcing his decision to retire after a lengthy career in criminal justice.