WARREN — The sprawling and often beleaguered Maine State Prison in Warren officially has a new leader: Rodney Bouffard, who has been acting warden there for the past several months.

He stepped into the role following the abrupt leadership change in early February that ousted Patricia Barnhart from the warden's chair. Bouffard, who was at the Long Creek Youth Development Center as superintendent, subsequently stepped into the role of Maine State Prison warden.

In a press release issued Wednesday afternoon, the state's commissioner of corrections, Joseph Ponte, said: “Rod has severed in many high level positions, first with what is now DHHS, where he was asked to bring major organizational change twice during his tenure there. In 2000, he accepted a position with the juvenile division, first as the chief of security and eventually, superintendent of the Long Creek Youth Development Center. Rod served as the catalyst that brought significant positive change to this facility. The Maine Juvenile System is now ranked third in the country for high performing juvenile correctional organizations under Rod’s leadership.

“Rod brings more than thirty years of facility management experience to this new position, but more importantly he understands the process that will bring positive lasting change to the Maine State Prison.

“Please join with me and wish Rod well as he begins this new assignment.”

The Maine State Prison houses adult male prisoners classified as high risk, protective custody, close, medium, and minimum custody, with minimum custody prisoners held awaiting transition to minimum security facilities.

The Maine State Prison and the Department of Corrections uses the Unit Management Concept of managing prisoners. Unit Management divides the prisoner population up into smaller units managed by multi-disciplinary Unit Teams.

Maine State Prison consists of:

Special Management Unit: housing High Risk Management prisoners, prisoners assigned to the Mental Health Stabilization Unit, and prisoners on Administrative Segregation or Disciplinary Status. Prisoners are housed in single cells in 3 separate pods.

Close Unit: prisoners classified as close custody, prisoners classified as protective custody, and prisoners on reception status. Prisoners are housed in single cells in 6 pods.

Medium Unit: prisoners classified as medium custody and prisoners classified as minimum awaiting transfer to a minimum facility. Prisoners are housed in double cells (6 pods) with the exception of one pod of single cells.

Maine State Prison is fully handicapped accessible and has cells in each pod for physically handicapped prisoners, allowing for full integration into the prison population.