ST. GABRIEL — The fourth warden to lead Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in two years sat down with WBRZ Investigative Unit's Bess Casserleigh to talk about what has changed at the prison in the six months since he took over.

Warden Travis Day brings 27 years of corrections experience to the job, with most of it spent working as a nurse for the Department of Corrections.

He said those medical skills now shape how he runs the prison.

"Being a nurse, there's a nursing process," Day said. "Assess, diagnose, implement and then you evaluate."

When asked whether the high turnover at the warden position gave him pause, Day said, "Absolutely not. I enjoy challenges. There were some reasons that I maybe didn't want to come this way, but they didn't have anything to do with the job." 

The WBRZ Investigative Unit has documented problems with uncontrolled contraband inside Elayn Hunt since 2024. That coverage included accounts from family members of inmates who died from suspected drug overdoses, inmates who described how easy it was to obtain and manufacture drugs inside the facility and former employees raising concerns about conditions there.

The issues exposed led to two state police investigations, one of which is ongoing.

Day said some of the progress made during his time should be credited to his predecessor.

"I'm not going to take full credit for that," Day said. "I think that Warden Keithe Turner, that was here prior to me, he did some very critical moves, and we talked about them recently with our staff, things that really complemented what we was able to do after I got here."

A crackdown on employee misconduct resulted in more than a dozen arrests this year, mostly for female officers communicating with inmates outside of work, and in a couple of instances, employees found to have had sexual relationships with inmates.

Day said those relationships raised broader concerns.

"You know if you'll do that, you'll do something else, and I'm not accusing anything, but that could have led to some of the drugs, that could have led to some of the cell phones," Day said.

Unexpected deaths at the prison have also slowed from a notable uptick in the fall and winter of 2025. Day said he rebuilt his investigative staff, bringing in people from outside the facility and from other corrections settings.

Even with those improvements, Day said contraband remains a moving target.

"How drugs or contraband is introduced, it always changes," Day said. "When you plug a hole, there's two more that want to open and trying to stay ahead of that."

The prison is currently short 100 staff positions. Day said that gap is significant when compared to earlier staffing levels.

"You have to understand in the early 2000s, we had 300 more positions here," Day said. "So you take 250, 300 off and you drop another 100, it's a big difference from where it was in the early 2000s."

Day attributed the shortage to a decrease in state funding for the Department of Corrections and to the public image surrounding Elayn Hunt, which he said he is working to change. "I think it's better," Day said. "And it depends on who you ask with that, but I think all in all it is a good place to work."