Westmoreland County Prison warden fired by prison board, deputy placed on leave

The warden at the Westmoreland County Prison has been fired. The board made the decision to fire Warden Steve Pelesky at its meeting on Thursday morning. 

Along with Pelesky's dismissal, Deputy Warden Robert Fagan has been placed on administrative leave. 

Little else was said about this abrupt firing of the warden, who had risen through the ranks of the prison and served two years in the top job.

Commissioner Dough Chew answered a few questions after the meeting concluded, specifying that the incident is not a criminal matter and the human resources department is investigating.

"We just have to let the investigation into the employment matter play out as it is," Chew said on Thursday.

The prison of around 600 inmates is under the purview of the Deputy Warden of Operations Benjamin Carrillo.

There is no word on when the search for a new warden will commence.

"I have full faith in Deputy Carrillo, and I am confident in the prison moving forward," Chew said.

Warden previously placed on leave, prison put on lockdown

Late last month, the Westmoreland County Prison went on lockdown, just an hour before the prison board voted to put Pelesky on administrative leave.

However, Chew said the lockdown was coincidental. 

"We can't comment on personnel matters or why the warden may have decided to pursue an administrative action, but the items that have shown up in social media regarding the prison being on a full prison lockdown are unrelated to the warden's administrative leave," Chew said at the time.  "We issued the lockdown due to a security concern, and that's unfortunately all we can say at this time."

Back in July, Chew also said that no other agencies were investigating his leave.