The warden and a top supervisor at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking have been replaced amid allegations contraband was entering the prison through a poorly screened gate.

Michele Buckner, a 25-year employee of the Department of Corrections, officially ended her employment with the department on Tuesday, spokeswoman Karen Pojmann wrote in an email to The Independent. Buckner was hired by the department in September 1999 and became warden in May 2019, Pojmann wrote.

Robert Hopping, ranked as a major, left the department’s employment last month, Pojmann wrote. Hopping also worked for the department for more than 20 years.

Michael Shewmaker, warden at Ozark Correctional Center in Webster County, will be acting warden at South Central. He is also a 25-year employee of the department, Pojmann wrote.

The South Central Correctional Center houses 1,601 inmates in minimum, medium and maximum security units.

Neither Buckner nor Hopping could not be reached for comment.

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Pojmann cited confidentiality restrictions for declining to give a reason for Buckner and Hopping’s separation from the department. But advocates who use staff, inmate and family sources to obtain information from inside prison walls said Buckner and Hopping were fired last month and walked out of the prison under supervision. 

“Everyone that I hear from, including current staff, former staff, and people who live there say that it is overrun with drugs and other contraband, that there is a lack of order, there’s a lack of policy being followed,” said Lori Curry of Missouri Prison Reform, an organization that advocates for people who are incarcerated and their families. “It’s basically the Wild West in there.”

The department has a confidential hotline for employee reports of misconduct by staff.

An investigation triggered by a hotline call “uncovered significant amounts of drugs and contraband at the facility,” Curry wrote in a social media post dated Jan. 3. “Employees were reportedly allowed to come and go freely through the back of the facility without checks or body scans, contributing to the influx of illegal items.”

There are “some inaccuracies in the claims” made in the post by Missouri Prison Reform, Pojmann wrote, but declined to give specifics. Personnel decisions and investigations are confidential, she wrote.

“I’m able to provide neither information about the nature of any employee’s separation from the department nor details about any ongoing investigation,” she wrote.

Buckner is the second warden to be dismissed in the past year because of issues within the facility they oversee. In June, Doris Falkenrath was removed as warden of Jefferson City Correctional Center after an investigation of the December 2023 death of Othel Moore.

Three corrections officers are facing second degree murder and assault charges in the death of Moore. Charges against two other corrections officers have been dismissed.

No details have been released by the department about Falkenrath’s removal.

An advocate for families with members in prison, Michelle Smith of the Missouri Justice Coalition, said outside investigations and transparency are needed to show the public that the department is serious about controlling contraband.

Removing a warden is an image makeover, not real change, she said.

“Even when they say that there was an investigation, and that’s why she was fired, that’s not transparent,” Smith said. “We don’t know exactly what the results were, what happened.”

Contraband drugs entering Missouri’s prisons is one factor in an increasing number of deaths among inmates. In response, “the department has created a robust investigations unit as one component of our efforts to keep dangerous contraband out of state prisons,” Pojmann wrote. “Department investigators work with other state agencies and local law enforcement to try to identify the sources of drugs and shut them down before contraband can enter the facilities.”

The department has installed body scanners, requires all personal correspondence be conducted digitally and is working to move legal mail to digital platforms only to reduce the chances for contraband entering the prison, Pojmann wrote. To reduce demand for drugs, the department has expanded treatment.

There have been several arrests of employees of the South Central Correctional Center who smuggle drugs into the prison. In August, former corrections officer Trishana Barton pleaded guilty to trafficking drugs and smuggling drugs into a prison for attempting to bring methamphetamine into the Licking facility in soda cans.

Law enforcement authorities for Licking and Texas County told The Independent that they have no jurisdiction within the prison and the department has not provided any information about any recent investigation.

“I hope that information is brought to us, or even another law enforcement agency, and I hope that whoever is bringing it in there or has been bringing it in is brought to justice,” Licking Police Chief Pat Burton said.

Texas County Sheriff Scott Lindsey said he had not met Shewmaker but offered to assist if asked.

“I’m always willing to work with whoever is in charge over there, and I look forward to meeting them, but I’m kind of waiting, at this point, just being patient to see what changes the state decides to make,” Lindsey said.

Déna Notz, who worked for part of 2022 as a corrections officer in the Licking facility now advocates for prison improvements through an organization called Collectively Changing Corrections. She sees a problem with Buckner’s last day being Tuesday, almost a week after Missouri Prison Reform posted about her removal.

“I believe they let her retire, which is pretty disheartening to hear, but I believe that’s what they did,” Notz said. “They’re so mysterious it’s sickening.”