Sterling Correctional Facility Warden Remains on Paid Leave Amid Investigation

Warden Jeff Long at the Sterling Correctional Facility and his brother, Warden Ryan Long at the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center, were both placed on paid leave on March 5, 2025, and remain off the job amid ongoing investigations, according to Alondra Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections. More than a year has passed, and neither warden has returned to duty.

Gonzalez has refused to say why the two brothers are under investigation and whether their cases are connected. In denying an open records request in December, the Department of Corrections cited a state law that allows law enforcement agencies to withhold records of an internal affairs investigation if there is an "ongoing criminal investigation or criminal case against a peace officer related to the subject of the internal investigation."

Jeff Long is paid an annual salary of $134,000, while Ryan Long is paid $144,000 annually. State Personnel Board rules prohibit placing employees on unpaid leave in circumstances like these, with Gonzalez noting that "'unpaid administrative leave' is not a recognized or permitted option under current State Personnel Board rules."

The two wardens were placed on leave on the same day as Warden Shane Stucker at the Fremont Correctional Facility and David Wolfsgruber, formerly the director of adult parole for the Department of Corrections. Joshua Dorcey, a program manager in the parole department, was placed on leave a day later. The three wardens collectively oversaw prisons with a combined capacity of more than 4,600 prisoners.

Stucker returned to work June 11, while Dorcey returned to work Oct. 1. Wolfsgruber was back on the job within a few weeks after being placed on leave, but he left the Department of Corrections in October to take a job with the Los Angeles County Probation Department. Prison officials have refused to release details of the internal investigations for Stucker and Dorcey on the grounds that their cases are related to other ongoing investigations.

Prison officials did release Wolfsgruber's internal affairs investigation, though it was heavily redacted. Those records show an employee filed a human resources complaint against Wolfsgruber on March 3, 2025, alleging that he referred to an employee as someone's "paramour," made "derogatory comments about needing an age cap" regarding an employee, and failed to support a healthy work-life balance by regularly sending communications to employees after hours.

For Jeff Long, the Sterling facility's warden and one of Logan County's most senior state officials, the absence stretches into its second year with no public accounting from the Colorado Department of Corrections. The agency has not disclosed whether his investigation is connected to any of the other personnel actions, to criminal proceedings involving other CDOC employees, or to anything else entirely. Until the department releases details or the investigation concludes, the reasons behind his removal from Colorado's largest maximum-security prison remain shielded from public view.