DENVER — After being on the job for just four months, the director of prisons for the Colorado Department of Corrections resigned Thursday.

Mark Flowers announced his retirement in an email to employees in the morning.

DOC spokesman Roger Hudson confirmed the resignation saying “Executive Director Rick Raemisch thanks Mr. Flowers for his service and dedication to the department.”

According to his biography on the DOC website, Flowers was hired in May. He most recently worked for the Virginia Department of Corrections.

Lou Archuleta, current warden of Fremont Correctional Facility has been named Interim Director of Prisons.

Flowers’ resignation comes one day after a 65-year-old inmate from the Skyline Corrections Center in Cañon City disappeared. Jerry Chase was found later in the day in the East Cañon Prison complex.  He never left the prison’s grounds.

It’s the latest in a series of events that have brought the DOC into focus after the Prison’s Chief Tom Clements was killed at his home in March.

His suspected killer, Evan Ebel, was killed in a gun battle with Texas authorities. Ebel, who had a long criminal record and was linked to a white supremacist prison gang, was released from prison early because of a technical error that causes the DOC to relook at the sentences of thousands of inmates.