Nilda Serrano. Courtesy Jackson County.
A Hispanic woman has broken another barrier in Jackson County. Nilda Serrano has become the first woman, and the first Hispanic, to be promoted to captain within the county corrections department.
She started her new duties last week as a captain in the detention unit.
The Corrections Department operates both the Jackson County Detention Center and Regional Correctional Center, adjoining facilities located just a block from the Jackson County Courthouse in downtown Kansas City.
“We had exceptional candidates for this captain’s position, both internally and externally,” said Joe Piccinini, Jackson County Director of Corrections, in a news release. “Nilda was the ideal candidate. She has the experience, the knowledge, the respect of her peers and of the inmates. She has a passion for her job and performs her duties with compassion.”
Before joining the correction department, Serrano was in the army for eight years. In her twenty years with Jackson County, she has translated visitation policies and inmate rules into Spanish, supervised the inmate workers program, and taught inmate supervision classes in the academy Jackson County recently launched for correctional officer recruits.
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