NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has named longtime state prisons official Tony Parker as the new commissioner of the Department of Correction.

Parker replaces Derrick Schofield, who announced earlier this month that he is stepping down to become the executive vice president of a Florida-based prison services provider.

Parker is a 33-year veteran of the department who started his career as a correctional officer at the Lake County Regional Correctional Facility in 1983. He was promoted several times until serving as warden at prisons in Tiptonville and Henning.

Parker became the correctional administrator of the agency's West Region in 2011.

The state Correction Department oversees 14 prisons holding about 21,000 inmates and supervises 79,000 people on probation, parole or community corrections. The agency employees 6,500 workers.