Personnel note: ADOC promotes Lagreta McClain, Chadwick Crabtree to warden
The Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) on Thursday announced the promotions of two new wardens within the state’s prison system. Effective Friday, Dec. 1, Largreta McClain will be the Warden I at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka and Chadwick Crabtree will be the Warden I at Birmingham Community Based Facility. Following a brief assignment at the Holman Correctional Facility, McClain worked at the Easterling Correctional Facility just short of 10 years before transferring to Tutwiler at the rank of sergeant. She continued to progress in her career and received a promotion to captain in 2015. “It is such an honor to have the opportunity to recognize someone that has worked so hard and is so deserving of a promotion,” said Deputy Commissioner of Women’s Services Wendy Williams. “Warden McClain has prepared herself for this opportunity and she is ready to take on this leadership role at Tutwiler.” Crabtree spent the majority of his career at the Limestone Correctional Facility before his promotion to lieutenant and subsequent assignment to the Decatur Community Based Facility in 2011. He was promoted to captain in 2016 and accepted an assignment to the Birmingham Community Based Facility. “I am very grateful for this opportunity and I look forward to working closely with the staff, volunteers and the community,” said Crabtree. “Our efforts will be focused on providing a safe work environment for our employees and delivering effective reentry services to those in our custody who are preparing to leave the prison system.”
State House resumes talks on prison construction bill
Lawmakers in the Alabama House have resumed work on the state’s stalled prison construction bill. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon confirmed Thursday House members are tweaking the bill that passed the Senate in March with a plan that would also replace the Tutwiler Prison for Women. The new plan would also lease new men’s prisons built by local communities. With the legislative session nearing an end on May 22, McCutcheon said prison construction is a priority and the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the bill on Tuesday. Newly minted Gov. Kay Ivey supports the construction legislation, which was first proposed by her predecessor former Gov. Robert Bentley as a solution to prison over-crowding across the state. As of September, Alabama prisons were at 175 percent of their intended occupancy — housing roughly 23,000 prisoners in facilities designed for 13,000. In October, the U.S. Justice Department opened a statewide investigation into violence, rape, overcrowding, among other problems and conditions in Alabama’s prisons for men.
