Sep 22, 2016 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – On his first day as Greene County jail’s new warden, John Kingston was ready to get to work.

“Thank you for letting me join the team,” Kingston said to the county’s prison board during the group’s monthly meeting at the jail. “I’m big on performance and not on talking.”

Kingston was hired earlier in the day Thursday by the salary board, which also set his annual salary at $51,000. Kingston, 59, of Waynesburg, replaces outgoing warden Harry Gillispie, who retired in July.

Kingston spent 26 years working as a state corrections officer and administrator, nearly half of which he worked as a captain at SCI-Greene, before retiring from the Department of Corrections in 2012.

He has since worked as a part-time contracted security guard at Waynesburg University.

The prison board recommended his hiring last month after reviewing more than a dozen applications and interviewing seven candidates.

“I’m standing on the diving board ready to jump in,” Kingston said.

County Commissioner Blair Zimmerman, who is also a member of the prison and salary boards, praised Kingston and said he thought he would do well handling the challenges facing the jail and its staff.

“We know there’s going to be changes with training, mental health issues, drugs and other stuff,” Zimmerman said. “We’re on board and keep us posted.”

Kingston said it will take some time to make improvements while he gets situated in his new job, but he thinks he brings “old-time experience” with working at different facilities, both antiquated and modern, for the state. He thinks he can improve training procedures without incurring large expenses by moving some of those training opportunities to in-house programs that can be done during workdays.

“I appreciate that confidence,” Kingston said of his hiring. “I’m kind of a workaholic, so I’ll be living here for a while.”

Zimmerman also thanked deputy warden Michael Kraus, who has served as acting deputy since in the three months since Gillispie retired. The salary board earlier in the day approved a $1,000 per month bonus for Kraus during that time he served as acting warden. Kraus will remain as deputy warden under Kingston.