Howard Patrick Gleason

Howard Patrick “Jack” Gleason (1890-1967)served as Sheriff of Alameda County, California from 1940 through 1963. Gleason was the longest-serving Sheriff in Alameda County history. Appointed in 1940 and subsequently elected to office, he retired in 1963. As the 17th Sheriff, he served through dramatic changes in the county, which had huge impacts on law enforcement. He may have been one of the most consequential Alameda County Sheriffs due to his attempts to incorporate rehabilitation into incarceration. He also sought to improve law enforcement training and professionalization in his department and the Northern California region. He established the original Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center near Dublin in 1947.

Early life

Gleason was born in Johnstown, New York on August 31, 1893. He attended school there and played baseball while in high school. His family moved to Oakland in 1909.

Early adulthood

According to some sources, Gleason played semi-pro baseball until 1917. He enlisted in the Navy that year and served in several locations, including aboard the and (ID 2168). (A Billy Gleason, with different birth and death dates and places, appeared with the Pirates in 1916–1917 and the Browns in 1921.) Another newspaper article said Jack Gleason had played with "several minor league teams, and in 1923, an injured knee put him on the shelf for all time."

In late 1922, he returned to Oakland and found a position with the Oakland Tribune. He later became the manager of the Circulation Department for the paper. He married Anne Ziehn in 1928. In 1936, he resigned and became a deputy sheriff in Alameda County.

Law enforcement career

Gleason joined the Sheriff’s Office as a deputy and served in several positions. A 1941 article noted that Gleason “… has served in virtually all departments of the sheriff’s office, his most recent assignment being bailiff in Superior Judge John D. Murphy’s Court." Gleason was appointed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors as Under-Sheriff on July 1, 1940, in part to support ailing Sheriff Mchael B. Driver. In November Sheriff Driver resigned due to ill health. For a time, Santa Rita was considered one of the state’s most well-run county jails. Rehabilitation efforts included a fully functioning farm whose efforts provided goods and services that offset a majority of the county jail’s cost. Other accomplishments included establishing the first county crime laboratory, the first introduction of two-person patrol cars with two-way radio communication to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, establishing a 40 hour work week for field deputies, hiring the first African American deputy sheriff, promoting the first African American captain, and promoting the first woman captain. Gleason also helped organize the first peace officers’ training school in Northern California. He was the President, National Sheriff’s Association, for the 1956/57 and 1957/58 terms.

Gleason retired on January 1, 1963. He was succeeded as sheriff by Frank Madigan.

Death Gleason died on March 4, 1967.