Parker comes out of retirement to assume warden duties at penitentiary

Above, Phil Parker assumes the duties of warden at the penitentiary.
-Bobbie Foust/Herald Ledger

Phil Parker, longest serving warden at Kentucky State Penitentiary, returned Friday for a second tenure. He succeeded Tom Simpson who retired in late August.
Parker, 57, is 25-year corrections veteran beginning his career as a correctional officer at the penitentiary in 1978, on a day when three inmates had escaped. He had just graduated from Murray State University with a degree in psychology.
He never planned a career in corrections, it just happened.
“When I started, I was fresh out of college, and my very first day as I walked up the steps they were on a manhunt for three escapees,” he said. “They were caught as I remember, but of course I hadn’t even trained yet. I just saw the activity going on.
“The penitentiary in those days was more violent — it was just a tough place to work, but I loved it,” he said. “I liked being involved in it; I liked trying to improve things; it was a challenge to go to work.
“That’s why I stayed,” he said. “The pay was low but the job was exciting.”
In announcing Parker’s appointment to head Kentucky’s only maximum security prison, Corrections Commissioner LaDonna Thompson expressed pleasure that he had decided to come out of retirement.
“I had the pleasure of working with Warden Parker for many years, and he has always proven to be an effective leader, an insightful decision maker and an example of corrections professionalism,” Thompson said. “The penitentiary is a very challenging institution and requires experienced leadership.”
After joining the prison staff here, Parker, a native of Possum Trot in Marshall County, worked through the ranks, and within six years he was promoted to deputy warden at Northpoint Training Center near Lexington. Four years later, he returned to Eddyville as deputy warden of security.
That was soon after the escape of eight dangerous inmates in June 1988. He became a leader in an intensive upgrade of security at the penitentiary. In 1989, he accepted a position as warden of a new prison in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. Three years later, he was appointed regional director in charge of 11 prisons in southern Ohio.
“That would be equivalent to deputy commissioner in Kentucky,” he said.
Parker returned to Kentucky and became warden at the penitentiary in 1993 succeeding Bill Seabold. He retired Aug. 1, 2002 and has spent the interim with his wife, Katie, doing wood working. The Parkers, who have a grown son, live in Crittenden County.
Though he retired seven years ago, Parker said he was never bored.
“I’ve never sat down,” he said. “Most of our activity or hobby — we are avid woodworkers. My wife and I both love woodworking, so we do woodworking almost all winter long, and we buy and sell lumber. In the summer, we are busy mowing and gardening and we have a boat so we slow it down in the summer, but we are always busy.
Even so, when he learned Simpson was retiring, Parker also learned there were six wardens retiring statewide.
“So (corrections) lost a lot of experience,” he said, noting with that on his mind, he offered to return until they could find a permanent warden. “They asked me if I would come back permanently. I was very honored to be asked to come back in a permanent instead of an interim position. So after giving it some soul searching, I thought I was ready to come back.”
During his first tenure as warden at the penitentiary, Parker presided over two executions — Harold McQueen in 1997, the last person put to death in the electric chair, and Edward Edward Lee Harper, Kentucky’s first to die by lethal injection. Only one execution has taken place since then — Marco Allen Chapman died by lethal injection in November 2008.
However, Parker noted there are several convicted murderers who could be executed in the coming months. And that is a heavy responsibility as is keeping the public safe from dangerous criminals.