Stan Moody

Bangor, ME stanmoody1@aol.com

The Firing of Warden Barnhart: Tapping into the Prison Rumor Mill Jan. 16, 2013 At 11:30 am on January 10, Maine State Prison Warden Patricia Barnhart was escorted out of the prison allegedly upon being terminated by Commissioner Joseph Ponte. The shroud of secrecy quickly thrown over the incident had Department of Corrections spokesperson, Jody Breton, saying, "The Department has no comment". That the Department has no comment comes as no surprise to journalists long frustrated over the system's lack of transparency. For those of us with limited inside experience, absence of comment customarily masks a crisis-driven management style devoid, with or without comment, of logical explanation. Experience dictates that one can safely assume that the firing of Warden Barnhart was not even on the radar a week or two before it happened - allegedly happened, that is. The reaction on the part of a lawsuit-averse press is simply and quickly to move on for lack of documentation. As I witnessed this rapid retreat and marveled at how quickly and effectively the corrections culture can circle the wagons out of fear of reprisal, I decided that I might open a dialogue with the rumor mill for snippets of information, publishing a fictional scenario on the basis of those insider perspectives. After sending out an appeal to former staff and informed members of the general public, I decided to create a loosely-structured concept that I dubbed "Decidedly Deep Throat" - DDT. The response was rapid and enthusiastic, suggesting that a fictional, undocumented account of actions within the prison system might well have sufficient elements of truth to coax corrections officials out of their shell onto the slippery slope of "comment". Here are the DDT rumblings from the rumor mill: DDT-1, 1/10/13: I was talking with a staff member at the prison today who said that the Commissioner came in this morning and told Warden Barnhart to pack her things and get out, along with another officer...

 DDT-1, 1/11/13: After talking with several staff members, there is talk of Warden Barnhart allowing horrific abuse on inmates if they filed grievances against her or other certain officers and refused to drop the grievance...One of the inmates nicknamed "Boo" had been cuffed in his cell and beaten and was quickly transported out of the prison just before the warden was removed from her job yesterday... DDT-1, 1/13/13: "Boo" Williams has been transferred to Maine Correctional Center (MCC) in Windham... DDT-2, 1/07/13: Capt. C used excessive force on Renardo Williams on 30 December and finally was placed on Administrative leave...GU (Principal of the Education Program) was escorted out of the facility and terminated...State Police drug dogs were in the parking lots all day on 12/31/12... The Warden has no concept of the Big Picture...She does whatever BC tells her to do...She has been making deals with inmates on Hunger Strikes to get pizza and candy in lieu of their strikes...mental health patients, normally in A2, allowed to go to A1, running around assaulting officers with no consequences... DDT-2, 1/13/13: The prison had Gary L (head of security for DOC) running around the prison all day yesterday stating that "mum is the word" and telling people not to talk about the warden firing whether or not they knew why she was fired...Everyone is running scared and keeping quiet... In the event that this fictional account, garnered as it is from the rumor mill, contains even a modicum of truth, the picture emerging is one of crisis management bordering on chaos, with an old boy network firmly in control of both its causes and effects. Back at the ivory tower of Corrections in Augusta, swift trips to Warren result in kneejerk reactions to a system flying out of control and a hasty closing of the information loop, permitting former spokesperson Breton to say with honor, "The Department has no comment". Neither, one might reasonably conclude if one were inadvisably to give credence to events massaged by the rumor mill, does the Department have any clue.
This account of events surrounding the firing of Warden Patricia Barnhart on Jan 10, 2013, are purely fictional, having been derived from leaks from the rumor mill at Maine State Prison. Any similarities to persons living or dead or otherwise employed or previously employed by the system are purely coincidental...