Neicole Molden Is The First Woman and Black American To Be Named Warden Of The Wyoming State Penitentiary

The Wyoming Department of Corrections (WDOC) announced the promotion of Deputy Warden Neicole Molden to the warden of the Wyoming State Penitentiary.

Molden has been part of the WDOC since 2009, when she started as a unit manager supervisor. She has worked at two facilities in the state, the Wyoming Women’s Center and the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution.

The promotion makes Molden the first woman and first Black American to be named the warden of the Wyoming State Penitentiary. She was also the first woman and Black person to hold her previous two positions.

In a WDOC release, Molden said she’s grateful and excited to begin the new post.

“I am truly humbled by the opportunity to be the first female warden for the Wyoming State Penitentiary,” she said. “I know that the experience and knowledge that I have will assist me to be successful in this position. I am grateful t6o be able to lead the dedicated staff of WSP and watch the staff become one successful team.”

The record-setting warden told K2 radio that she wants to provide a better experience for inmates.

“I’m a pretty involved person, especially when it comes to the operations and the inmates,” Molden said.

“I try to stay really involved in the inmate population to keep them busy, to keep them educated. I think I’ll do more…I’m looking at teaching some classes myself. When I was at the women’s center, I taught a confidence class for the women as the associate warden, so I plan on doing something like that for the men too. But I just want to find more activities to keep them busy, to give them more pro-social skills.”

The warden, who started her new position last week, is also dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that saw 77 new cases during her first week between prisoners and staff. Molden said the prison has been working diligently to ensure staff and inmates are safe.

“We’ve had to be very creativ. We’ve had to find ways to keep the inmates safe, to keep the staff safe,” she said. “That’s numerous cleanings, different face masks every day, sometimes they’re locked down a certain amount of time depending upon if there’s a big outbreak, we normally have to lock them down a certain amount of time until we get the numbers down.”