MI- ME- Michigan Woman Appointed to Head Maine State Prison

10-14-2009 Michigan - Maine:

The Baldacci administration has appointed the first woman ever to serve as warden of an all-male correctional facility in Maine. Patricia M. Barnhart, who is now warden of a facility in Michigan, will take the reigns of the Maine State Prison in Warren in December. Prisoner advocates are hoping the appointment will lead to a change of culture at the state's largest prison.

According to the Maine Department of Corrections, Patricia Barnhart has 20 years of experience in corrections, and is now acting warden at the Thumb Correctional facility, a 1,200 bed prison for adult males and youthful offenders in Michigan.

"Her attributes are considerable," says Deputy Commissioner Denise Lord. Lord says Barnhart was invited to tour the Maine State prison, which has a capacity of more than 900 prisoners, and a staff of more than 400.

Lord says Barnhart spoke with staff and also met with the management team. "Everyone came away from those exchanges impressed with her openness, her team-building, her leadership abilities, her desire to bring people together into joint problem-solving. Plus she has considerable experience running an institution."

Barnhart succeeds Warden Jeff Merrill, who, after 14 years, has decided to take a new position directing the Corrections Department's energy conservation efforts. Some prison advocates say it's time for major changes at the Maine State Prison.

"I don't know much about Patricia Barnhart, but I do have high hopes for her," says Zachary Heiden of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Heiden says there are any number of continuing problems at the Maine State Prison. He points to the overuse of solitary confinement, and inadequate medical care for inmates, including treatment for mental illness.

Heiden says he hopes that Warden Barnhart will be able to create a more productive culture within the prison. "Ninety-five percent of people in prison are someday going to be out of prison, and the kind of people they are when they get out of prison has a lot to do with how they are treated in prison," Heiden says. "And I think the culture of a prison or a jail is critical in thinking about 'what are the kind of people that we want to come back into our communities?'"

"There's big issues of staff overcrowding, people having to work long hours, there's problems for everybody there," says Judy Garvey, a member of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition, which is hoping that the incoming warden will be more open to the concerns raised by advocates, workers, inmates, and their families. "They need to have more input from the outside so there's so much more transparency. It's been closed off for a long time. I know it's hard for reporters to get in."

"When my stories in the Phoenix started appearing about the abuse that was going on there, they basically shut me out," says freelance journalist Lance Tapley, who has covered the Maine State Prison extensively for the Portland Phoenix. Tapley says he has since been allowed back into the prison and is now allowed to interview inmates without having a prison official also present.

He says the problems that incoming warden Patricia Barnhart will face when she takes the keys are considerable. "She is walking into a colossal mess," Tapley says. "There has been a murder this year of an an inmate under circumstances that were perhaps implicating staff, there have been a bunch of lawsuits involved with the way prisoners have been treated, there was a suicide a while back that also resulted in another big suit. Guards have been prosecuted for assault for the first time in, I believe, history. It is a complete mess."

Deputy Commissioner Denise Lord says Barnhart will be a strong and dynamic leader at the prison. "She's open to new ideas, she is progressive in her thinking about corrections, but she's also very capable and able to make decisions and move things forward."

Patricia Barnhart could not be reached for comment. She will take over as Warden at the Maine State Prison in early December. ..Source.. by Keith Shortall