Warden removed from Macomb Correctional Facility after prison homicide
LANSING − The Michigan Department of Corrections has replaced the warden at Macomb Correctional Facility and banned him from prison property, pending internal investigations, an official confirmed.
George Stephenson has been "stop ordered," meaning he is barred from entering the prison, department spokesman Chris Gautz said.
Willis Chapman, an MDOC assistant deputy director and former warden at Macomb, has assumed control of the prison, effective Oct. 19, Gautz said.
Gautz said Stephenson has not been fired and there is no police investigation related to Stephenson. "Due to it being a personnel issue and an ongoing internal investigation I cannot get into what potential work rules there are or what it is related to," he said.
Stephenson's Oct. 18 removal came the same day one prisoner was killed and another injured in related incidents at the prison. Those incidents are under investigation both internally and by the Michigan State Police.
The Free Press reported Oct. 19 that a prisoner in Macomb's residential treatment program stabbed another prisoner several times in the back, arm and face. The prisoner who was the victim of that attack was treated at a hospital and released, but when officials searched the cell of the prisoner who wielded the weapon, they found his cellmate suffering from "severe injuries" that proved fatal, officials said.
More:1 prisoner killed, another injured in incidents at Macomb County prison
More:Prisoners, officers detail retaliation after outing staff for smuggling drugs
Gautz later identified the man killed as Ruben Martinez, 28. He was serving time for a 2011 armed robbery in Saginaw County, as well as offenses committed in prison in January of this year, records show.
Stephenson did not immediately respond to a phone message.
Macomb Correctional Facility's residential treatment facility is also where prisoner Ventron Lott, 35, died in December 2021 from an overdose of heroin and fentanyl. Another prisoner who was in a nearby cell, Marshall Forrest, 60, has told the Free Press and the Michigan State Police that Lott told him a Macomb corrections officer supplied the drugs.
Gautz has also confirmed to the Free Press a September incident in which a newly recruited corrections officer was escorted out of Macomb Correctional Facility by Michigan State Police after he was found in possession of contraband that included marijuana, tobacco, and a cellphone.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Warden removed from Macomb Correctional Facility after prison homicide
