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 the firing of Pelesky, Deputy Warden Robert Fagan has been placed on administrative leave. 

The board did not provide much detail about the decision other than to say it is not a criminal matter. 

We will have more details on KDKA-TV News at 4, 5, and 6. 

Warden placed on administrative 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, the prison board chairman, Doug 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.