newspaperman, politician, penal reformer, b. Milwaukee. He was educated at Marquette Academy. After acting briefly on the New York stage, he returned to Milwaukee to serve as a reporter and editor on the Sentinel and Free Press. He was private secretary to Robert M. La Follette, Sr. (q.v.) (1903-1920). In 1925 he was named secretary of the Wisconsin state board of control, an office that he held through 1939. As secretary and president of the board, he promoted better educational facilities for the state's penal institutions, started a new parole system with a special department of probation, and with W. F. Lorenz set up a system of psychiatric treatment. He also developed a program that utilized the state prison inmates to produce binder twine and auto license plates, and established the first outside prison camps without armed guards. In 1937 he was instrumental in helping create the state board of corrections, an advisory and policy-making body to aid in modernizing methods for the detention, reformation, and correction of prisoners. Widely regarded as an effective and forceful planner, organizer, writer, and public speaker, he was among the foremost penal authorities in the country. Milwaukee Journal, Nov. 23, 1946; Madison Capital Times, Nov. 23, 1946; Hist. State Board of Control (Madison 1940; J. J. Hannan Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the John J. Hannan Papers for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]