WARREN – An Arizona prison inmate whose 15-day hostage-taking was ended by a deal allowing him to be transferred to Maine has arrived for a lifetime stay.

Lewiston native Steven Coy, 40, is housed in a private cell in the new Maine State Prison’s special management unit, Warden Jeffrey Merrill said.

A prisoner swap with Maine was brokered after a January standoff in which Coy and another inmate took control of a watchtower in the Arizona Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye, west of Phoenix. During the 15-day hostage-taking, Coy raped one of the two guards.

In the exchange, Brandon Thongsavanh – the Auburn man who killed Bates College senior Morgan McDuffee, 22, in March 2002, was transferred Sunday to the Arizona prison, Merrill said.

Thongsavanh is serving a 58-year sentence for stabbing McDuffee five times in the chest and back during a random late night encounter on Lewiston’s Main Street that turned into a brawl pitting young local men against several Bates students.

On Saturday, Coy was escorted by two Arizona agents and flown to Boston, where he was then driven by vehicle to the Warren prison. He was processed into the “high-risk” housing area by 10 p.m., Merrill said.

“Special security precautions are in place by the chief of security that will be implemented every time he’s moved,” Merrill said.

In the deal to end the standoff, prison officials in both states agreed to Coy’s demand for a transfer to Maine, where some of his family lives.

In the Warren special management unit are 50 single-person cells where maximum-security inmates are housed. Coy will remain in his cell 23 hours per day, where he will eat all meals. Once a day, he will be allowed to leave his cell to exercise in a special security area for one hour.

In March, Coy pleaded guilty to 14 charges stemming from the Arizona standoff, which included sexual assault, escape, kidnapping, assault and promoting prison contraband.

Prior to the hostage-taking, Coy was serving several life terms, the first of which was for a two-week crime spree involving armed robbery, assault, kidnapping and rape.

Guards have raised concerns about Coy, said Zack Matthews, staff representative for corrections officers. Matthews works for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees labor union.

Receiving inmates convicted of “serious and egregious crimes” is always a concern, he said, and “upsets the delicate balance in the facility.”

But he cited professionalism of the state’s corrections officers, whose role is to protect not only staff, but others, he said.

With the number of inmate-to-inmate and inmate-to-guard assaults at an all-time high, concern is even greater, he said.

Last week, the Legislature approved 20 additional corrections staff members statewide, Matthews said. That includes roughly eight guards for the Warren prison. Forty new positions had been requested.

“We still have some issues for more staff,” he said.

According to Matthews, there are some 320 corrections officers at Maine State Prison. The prisoner count Monday was 892, the warden said.

“I’m very confident in our staff being trained to handle high-risk inmates,” Merrill said, noting there are other inmates at the prison serving multiple life sentences. Coy is in “the most secure center in the department.”

In the days since Coy’s Saturday arrival, there have been “no problems with him,” Merrill said. “He was made aware of the dos and don’ts while he’s here.”