Sexual harassment investigation

The Milwaukee Police Department wants outsiders to investigate the assistant chief.

The warden of Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility downtown has left his job after an arrest for shoplifting.

Ronald K. Malone, 60, of Oak Creek, had been in charge of the state-run facility since 2015. The detention facility, operated by the Department of Corrections, is meant to house people arrested on suspected violations of probation or extended supervision conditions.

But many inmates wind up spending weeks or even several months in windowless cells of the high-rise building that looms over I-43 at State Street. Critics have called for it to be shut down.

According to Oak Creek police records, the Woodman’s store in Oak Creek had been accumulating evidence of Malone leaving the store without paying for items several times before contacting police after the fourth incident on Oct. 14.

The shoplifted items included things like a bottle of Aleve and a box of Febreze.

Police arrested Malone at his Oak Creek home Oct. 27. Oak Creek municipal court records indicate Malone paid a $250 fine for a shoplifting citation from an Oct. 14 incident.

He announced his retirement Nov. 1 effective immediately, DOC spokesman Tristan Cook said Friday.

Malone joined the DOC in 1988, left in 2001 and returned in 2011, Cook said. Malone was paid about $103,000 annually as warden at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility.

Cook said Racine Correctional Institution Warden Paul Kemper will serve as acting warden at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility until the position is filled.