By Tyra Braden
The Morning Call
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Marlene Chamblee had a short but successful tenure as warden at Monroe County Prison.
''Anytime that anybody comes in during a transition time, it’s tough,’' county Commissioner Donna Asure, who also heads the county’s six-member prison board, said Thursday. Asure said Chamblee, 44, of Cresco has left to pursue other work opportunities. Her last day as warden was Wednesday.
Chamblee took over as warden in January in the wake of a sex scandal last year that saw former Warden David G. Keenhold resign amid claims that inmates and guards had intimate encounters at the Hamilton Township facility, which can house nearly 400 inmates and has a staff of about 100.
Asure said the prison had no problems under Chamblee’s short reign. ''Absolutely not,’' Asure said. ''I hope the media will allow us to move past the problems we have had in the past. We need to learn from the past but live in the future.’'
Chamblee had made an impact, Asure said. ''She taught the staff new ways to do things. We were happy to have her for six months, and we wish her well.’' Asure said she accepted Chamblee’s resignation on behalf of the prison board and that a meeting has been set for this morning so the entire board can take official action.
Asure said she is unsure when a successor will be named. Keenhold was being paid $60,000 a year, and Chamblee’s salary was $58,000. ''We’ll discuss that at the prison board meeting,’' she said.
Operations at the prison are running smoothly, Asure said. ''We have a great staff out there’’ at the prison, she said, ''with some very long-term employees. We have lieutenants who have been there 16, 17, 18 years. They’ll take this bump in the road and continue to move forward.’'
She added it’s not uncommon for county employees to move on.
Charged in the scandal that led to Keenhold’s resignation were guards Mark Gutshall, 40, of Blakeslee; Richard Chilmaza, 40, of East Stroudsburg, Dana Simpson, 35, of Tobyhanna, Yvonne Lockard, 32, of Tobyhanna, Frank Bell, 51, of Bangor, and Roodney Ulysse, 35, of Tobyhanna. Misty M. Mate, 31, of Albrightsville, who was not employed by the prison but worked in the facility’s kitchen, also was charged.
Gutshall pleaded guilty in August to institutional sexual assault. He was sentenced in December to serve three to 23 months in the prison where he had worked and was paroled in March.
Simpson, Lockard, Bell, Ulysse and Mate all entered pleas to possession of contraband. Each was placed on probation for one year. Chilmaza pleaded guilty to possession of contraband and is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
Copyright 2008 The Morning Call