Hi Michigan DU'ers - What do you know about.....

[Maine-ah]

Patricia M. Barnhart, acting warden of the Thumb Correctional Facility,

She is coming to Maine to take the position of Warden for the Maine State Prison (which is in my backyard just about)

http://www.knox.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=179941

Patricia M. Barnhart, acting warden of the Thumb Correctional Facility, Michigan Department of Corrections, has accepted the position of warden for the Maine State Prison in Warren, Marty Magnusson, commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections, said Wednesday in a news release.

Barnhart is replacing Warden Jeff Merrill who is taking a position to lead the department’s energy conservation efforts.

“Patty Barnhart has more than 20 years of experience in corrections including her current responsibilities as acting warden of the Thumb Correctional Facility,” said Magnusson. “She will bring experienced and progressive leadership to the Maine State Prison.”

As acting warden, Barnhart is responsible for the direction, management and oversight of a 1,216-bed prison for adult males and youthful offenders for the State of Michigan Department of Corrections.

[Festivito]

1. I doubt anyone would know her.

...unless they partied with her.

Our prison system became even more secretive during the slimeball Engler governorship, partly to keep people from talking with Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian.

I think those warden jobs tend to be political appointees. We just hope they all are not cousins or worse, Republican operatives, who squeaked through their college warden program.

The prison industrial complex is declining and we have a glut of prisons. We HOPE to get Gitmo detainees so another of our small towns with a closed prison can once again survive.

Sounds like she's smart enough to know to get out to a more stable situation. But, she might not be the top of the totem pole of wardens among the state department that deals with warden placements.

I've worked in some prisons for some week-long contractual maintenance work. Never dealt with a warden. My respect was great for the guards and maintenance crews who kept the peace, the safety and kept the prisoners, who have nothing else to do other than think of ways to escape, inside.

I didn't thing anyone would answer this, so I did. If I were looking at a perspective warden, I'd want to know what programs were set, what things were left alone, and what the maintenance and guard staffs think, albeit with the usual chunk of salt.

Good luck.