By Connor Sheets
Alabama Media Group
ATMORE, Ala. — There’s a new warden at the notorious William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.
Cynthia Stewart - who until recently served as warden at G.K. Fountain Correctional Facility - replaced Carter F. Davenport at the helm at Holman earlier this year after Davenport retired from the position, according to Department of Corrections (DOC) spokesman Bob Horton. Stewart is the third person to serve as warden at Holman within the past nine months.
Horton did not say why Davenport decided to retire or whether his record of presiding over high levels of violence at prisons where he has been warden played a role in the corrections veteran’s departure.
“Stewart has served as warden at the Birmingham Women’s Facility and Fountain Correctional Facility before taking over as warden of William C. Holman Correctional Facility,” Horton said. “Kenneth Peters is serving as interim warden at Fountain.”
Stewart was still listed as warden of Fountain on the DOC website as of Wednesday, and Holman’s warden slot was listed as “vacancy.”
Reached via telephone Wednesday afternoon, Davenport, whose time as warden at Holman began Dec. 1, 2015, declined to provide meaningful answers to any questions.
“I don’t know. Check with the DOC,” he said when asked by AL.com if he still worked for the department.
“I’m trying to be very nice; anything you want to know about the Alabama Department of Corrections, ask the Alabama Department of Corrections. Please sir, alright? Thank you,” he said after AL.com asked him whether he is currently employed anywhere.
On June 30, Davenport collected his final biweekly DOC paycheck, for $47,465.41, nearly 12 times his standard biweekly pay of $3,994.70, according to state spending records.
“His pay June 30 was for unused accrued leave as allowed by state statute,” Horton said via email.
Davenport worked in corrections for nearly 29 years, but he was a controversial figure whose tenure with the DOC was marred by violence perpetrated both by and against him and the officers who reported to him.
A number of organizations – from the prominent prison reform nonprofit the Equal Justice Institute to the locally organized inmates’ rights group the Free Alabama Movement – have called for Davenport to be removed from his warden posts over the course of his career.
Davenport and another corrections officer were stabbed during a riot at Holman in March that reportedly involved about 100 inmates. Neither Davenport nor the other officer died, but the stabbings built upon the existing perception of Holman as one of Alabama’s toughest prisons. Another violent attack rocked the prison on Sept. 1, when a correctional officer was stabbed, sustaining injuries that killed him 15 days later, according to WSFA. And on Sunday a Holman corrections officer was arrested and charged with trying to smuggle drugs, cell phones and other contraband into the facility, according to WKRG.
Davenport also had a violent reputation and history. In 2012, he was warden at St. Clair Correctional Facility in Springville, where he punched a mouthy inmate in the head, a violation of prison policy that in Alabama is not considered a crime. The incident was never investigated and no one ever interviewed the inmate or recorded the injury, according to records reviewed by AL.com in 2014.
Many St. Clair inmates and advocates blamed Davenport for presiding over a sharp increase in violence at the prison, once one of the calmest in the state. In 2010, only 23 assaults were reported at St. Clair; in 2013 the number of reported assaults had more than quadrupled to 101.
Inmates at Holman held a one-day strike on Sept. 9, protesting what they have long described as inhumane living conditions and the low pay they receive for prison labor, which some have taken to calling “modern slavery.” Nine corrections officers failed to report to a work shift this past weekend, Horton said, declining to confirm that it was a strike, as inmates’ advocacy groups claimed. A Holman inmate told AL.com Tuesday that guards at the prison might strike sometime this week.
Davenport served as warden at St. Clair for about five years before he was reassigned to Easterling Correctional Facility in Clio on March 1, 2015, and then Holman on Dec. 1, 2015.
Copyright 2016 Alabama Media Group, Birmingham