Warden Ousted at Troubled State Prison in Lancaster : Corrections: Officials order Otis Thurman to retire or accept a demotion. Four escapes, including one by a convicted murderer, have plagued the year-old prison.

In a surprise move, officials have told the warden at the state prison in Lancaster either to retire or accept a demotion--probably the result of a series of problems that have plagued the year-old prison, including the escapes of a convicted murderer and three other inmates.

“The California Department of Corrections has made a decision to restructure the management team (at the Lancaster prison). . . . Otis Thurman, warden, has yet to determine which options available to him would be in his best interest and has decided to take some time off,” said a brief statement issued Friday by state prison officials.

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No other details were released, but several members of the prison’s citizens advisory committee said they were told that Thurman’s options were to retire--after more than three decades as a Corrections Department employee--or accept a demotion and be transferred to another institution.

“I was notified Thursday the warden was being asked to take a demotion and/or retire,” said Jake Maeders, a committee member.

The sudden shake-up also includes the demotion and transfer of Thurman’s second in command at the 4,000-inmate prison. Chief Deputy Warden Alex Marmolejo has been reassigned to an associate warden’s position at the state prison in Tehachapi, state officials said.

Advisory committee members said they were given little information and were surprised that Thurman was being replaced.

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But committee member George Root, a Lancaster councilman, said he wasn’t surprised. “I think (Thurman’s) problem was he was too laid-back,” Root said. “I’m really happy the Department of Corrections saw fit to remove the warden and his deputy as a first step to reorganization of the management staff.”

Root and other advisory committee members said the shake-up is the result of the four escapes, including that of two maximum security inmates, and other problems that have occurred since the prison opened Feb. 1, 1993.

The first escapes occurred five months after the prison opened. On July 2, two minimum-security inmates, one serving time for burglary and the other for robbery, walked away from their barracks. Both were recaptured.

On Oct. 5, convicted murderer Eric Rene Johnson escaped from the maximum-security unit. Johnson, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, was seen about five hours after his escape at a Lancaster convenience store, a few miles from the prison.

Johnson’s escape triggered an uproar in the community. Prison officials waited more than two hours after they suspected the escape to notify the local sheriff’s station. The Lancaster City Council was not told for more than 12 hours, after Johnson was recaptured.

The escape and how it was handled led community leaders to abandon plans to support the construction of a second state prison in Lancaster.

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On Jan. 13, Steven Charles Brigida, a maximum-security inmate, escaped by hiding in a garbage bin. He was dumped with the trash into a truck and later deposited at a Lancaster landfill. The prisoner, who was serving a sentence of life plus eight years for attempted murder, suffered broken ribs.

The prison and Thurman have been criticized for failing to keep the community informed about the escapes. And members of the citizens advisory committee have become frustrated by their inability to pass on information to residents.

Reports on investigations into the escapes have not been released.

“We need to have openness,” said James Lott, advisory committee chairman. “We cannot have a perception they’re hiding things at the prison.”

Andrew Banks, a correctional officer at the prison, said that employee morale has been low since word of Thurman’s departure spread.

“As far as I know he was well-liked,” said Banks, president of the local chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn.

Banks is skeptical that the shake-up will reduce escapes. “New management won’t make a difference. Nothing’s foolproof; you try to do all the security measures you can.”