THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407030149
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
A shakeup in the Virginia Department of Corrections has left the state seeking wardens for three prisons.
The shakeup announced by new Department of Corrections Director Ronald J. Angelone affects prison administrations throughout the state and leaves vacancies at the correctional centers in Mecklenburg, Greensville and Staunton.
Angelone said the changes are part of a ``refocusing'' of personnel. Angelone was named director by Gov. F. George Allen in May, replacing longtime Director Edward W. Murray.
``What I'm doing is refocusing . . . people in new areas to develop and build stronger'' prison administrations, he said, declining to characterize any of the moves as demotions.
Charles Thompson, for the past eight years the warden at the 350-inmate, maximum-security Mecklenburg Correctional Center, which houses death row, will be leaving the facility to open the state's newest prison in Lunenburg County, Angelone said.
Largely because of design shortcomings, Mecklenburg is the most expensive prison to operate in the state and was the scene of the 1984 escape of six death-row inmates. Three inmates at the prison, including two on death row, have overdosed on narcotics there in the past three years. Two of the inmates died.
Last month, Del. Frank M. Ruff, R-Clarksville, wrote to corrections officials and complained of what he called mismanagement at Mecklenburg. Ruff praised Angelone for ``handling it exactly right. He's taken action.''
Angelone, however, said Thompson's move was a lateral one.
``This in no way has anything to do with anyone's feeling'' about Thompson's performance, Angelone said. Thompson has spent eight years at Mecklenburg and it is time for change there, Angelone said.
In other corrections changes, Ellis Wright, warden at Greensville Correctional Center, has been moved to the new Deerfield Correctional Center in Capron as an assistant warden. Greensville, with more than 2,400 inmates, is the state's largest prison and houses the electric chair.
John Taylor, warden of the 750-inmate Staunton Correctional Center, has been named the new warden at the 950-inmate Buckingham Correctional Center.
Angelone said the state will advertise nationally for permanent wardens at Mecklenburg, Greensville and Staunton. by CNB