Greene County jail warden announces retirement
WAYNESBURG – After more than 19 years as warden of Greene County jail, Harry Gillispie is taking his leave.
Gillispie, 60, submitted his letter of retirement Tuesday to the county commissioners. His last day will be July 1.
“They say you reach a point in life when you know it’s time to retire. I think I’ve reached that point,” Gillispie said Thursday.
“I’ve been in corrections and law enforcement since I was 18 years old. After 42 years, I think it’s just time to look at doing something else.”
Blair Zimmerman, chairman of the board of commissioners, said he is sorry to see Gillispie leave.
“It’s been my pleasure to work with Harry over the past few years, and I’m sad to see him go,” Zimmerman said.
He said Gillispie always kept him informed about what was going on at the prison and always addressed any of his concerns.
“He’s done a good job.” Each year the prison is inspected by state corrections department, and “each year they’ve passed with flying colors,” Zimmerman said. “It’s going to be hard to replace him.”
Gillispie started in corrections in 1973 as a corrections officer at the prison in Moundsville, W.Va. He left that prison in 1990 as a deputy warden and was hired as warden of Greene County jail in 1996. Gillispie left the prison for about a year in 1997, but returned as warden a year later.
“I don’t think the general public understands the stress in this job,” Gillispie said, perhaps hinting at one of the reasons he believes it’s time to retire.
He said he often fields calls from the prison during off hours, and when he runs into someone on the street, the topic of conversation inevitably shifts to talk of work.
During his tenure, Gillispie twice oversaw the expansion of the prison, expansions that created space for an additional 120 inmate beds. He also oversaw improvements to prison security, most recently the addition of an electric fence following an inmate escape in December, and the creation of an inmate work crew that provides free labor to municipalities for various local projects.
Gillispie said he likes to think he also helped develop a more professional staff. This was accomplished with more training as well as through the establishment of written policies and procedure, something, he said, was lacking when he first assumed the post.
The prison staff, Gillispie said, also has been “excellent.” But most people don’t understand what they do or give them enough credit, he said. Corrections officers have to deal with a variety of personalities, including inmates with drug and alcohol problems, and work in an environment that always includes the threat of harm.
“Every day that you come in, you’re faced with the possibility of getting kicked, hit, stabbed or having urine thrown in your face,” he said. All this for $15.02 an hour, the starting wage of a full-time officer, he said.
During his years, Gillispie said he noticed inmates seem to be getting younger and have more problems with drugs and alcohol. They also seem to have more of an attitude of “entitlement” that everything should be done for them.
“They don’t understand structure, they don’t understand rules and regulations … they don’t understand that in jail they can’t do what they want as if they were still on the street,” he said.
Gillispie said he also noticed the prison seems to be getting more people accused of sex crimes.
“I just don’t know if there’s more of that occurring or if more people are just stepping forward to say they have been abused of molested,” he said.
Despite the problems that come with being a warden, Gillispie said he’ll miss the work.
“After so long, you don’t just walk away and not think about it again,” he said.
In addition to his job as warden, Gillispie works part time at Kesterson-Rush Funeral Home and is a deputy wildlife conservation officer with Pennsylvania Game Commission.
For the immediate future, he said, he will probably take a month off and consider what he wants to do next.
“I’ll do something. I just can’t sit around,” he said. “I’m 60 years old and I’m not ready to just sit on the porch in a rocking chair.”