MONROE — The superintendent of the Monroe Correctional Complex knows he must make changes at the state’s largest prison after the killing Saturday of corrections officer Jayme Biendl in the chapel.
For now, though, Scott Frakes isn’t sure what to fix.
He said he simply must wait until the criminal investigation is completed.
Until then, Frakes said he can’t even question some of his own officers to try to determine what may have gone awry.
“There is no doubt this is going to impact every aspect of operations here,” Frakes said in an interview Wednesday as he walked the prison grounds.
All security practices will be reviewed and many activities for inmates likely will be scaled back, he said.
It will be a delicate balance because the programs and work opportunities are used to motivate inmates to behave.
Biendl, 34, was strangled Saturday night in the chapel at the Washington State Reformatory, a place where she had worked alone for years. The prime suspect is convicted rapist Byron Scherf, 52, who is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Scherf is now locked up in the Snohomish County Jail.
Frakes stopped by the chapel Wednesday, but did not go in. He couldn’t. It remains a crime scene.
Outside a 12-foot-tall cyclone fence were two vases with flowers. The chapel’s double doors were open.
In a wide-ranging interview, Frakes and other top Department of Corrections leaders discussed a variety of topics about the prison, the suspect and the slain corrections officer:
• Frakes said he continues to search for a work order that Biendl reportedly placed on her sergeant’s desk requesting additional cameras in the chapel. The superintendent on Wednesday held up a stack of about 75 work orders that Biendl had made over the years. She was described as methodical and careful about her work area.
• An inmate last year was removed as a chapel volunteer after Biendl said he made her feel uncomfortable. An investigation at the time found the man had made threatening statements toward Biendl in a letter.
• Frakes acknowledged that the 100-year-old reformatory isn’t ideal for the direct supervision style of monitoring inmates, in which line of sight is important. There are blind spots that don’t allow officers and cameras to see everything.
• On paper, Scherf wasn’t a problem inmate. He hadn’t had any infractions while at the reformatory for the last decade. At 52, he had strong family connections, including regular visits from his wife and mother. He was involved in faith-based programs and held a prison job.
• Prison officials explained that inmate security classifications aren’t based solely on the seriousness of their criminal convictions but rather the offenders’ behavior in prison. One in four inmates statewide are serving at least 20 years. The bulk of the prison population is classified as medium-security custody.
State senators move to restore funding
In Olympia on Wednesday, state senators moved to restore $6 million for Department of Corrections training programs. The additional dollars are included in a larger bill that aims to trim overall state spending. The Senate may act on the bill as early as Friday.
Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the Senate budget committee, said Biendl’s killing prompted members to push for replenishing training dollars.
Prison officials said they know Saturday’s killing has raised numerous questions about the safety of corrections officers.
In the six months leading up to the Biendl’s death, two other women staff members reported being assaulted at the Monroe Correctional Complex, they said.
Neither of those who were attacked were corrections officers, and in one instance Snohomish County prosecutors did not deem the events sufficient to support a misdemeanor charge.
There are roughly 2,500 inmates at Monroe, the state’s largest prison complex. About 750 of those inmates are confined in the Washington State Reformatory unit where Biendl worked.
On Sept. 24, a former student in a reformatory chemical dependency class put his hands on the neck of a counselor, Frakes said.
“He somehow inappropriately grabbed her,” Frakes said.
The incident occurred in an area of the reformatory used for inmate programs. The case was investigated as a possible fourth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor.
Prosecutors initially declined to file charges against the inmate, but prison officials plan to ask that the case be re-examined, Frakes said.
In an Aug. 24 case, an inmate reportedly grabbed a female custodian in a sexual manner at a maintenance department office. She had been working as his supervisor.
“She pulled away from the offender and ran out of the room,” Frakes said.
The employee took a medical leave and recently returned to a different job outside the perimeter of the prison complex, Frakes said.
That case remains under investigation by the Monroe Police Department.
Monroe police say they opened cases on two other reported assaults on employees at the prison complex in 2010. Both involved male workers.
One of those cases focused on a male corrections officer who was tackled by an inmate at the special offenders unit. That’s where the state sends inmates with mental health issues, Frakes said.
The officer’s wrist was broken. He was able to gain control of the situation before other officers arrived, Frakes said.
The prison superintendent said the assault reports that wound up being investigated by police didn’t include many of the degrading inmate behaviors that officers and other prison staff routinely face. Those include having feces thrown at them, being spit on and bumped into, as well as general intimidation.
“There are a whole litany of other behaviors that are addressed at the disciplinary level,” he said.
Frakes said he would like to see legislation enacted that would make behaviors that don’t rise to assault considered crimes.
Frakes said he’s sought advice from the police chief in Lakewood in Pierce County, where four officers were killed by a gunman in November 2009.
The chief left him a message, Frakes said: Take care of your staff, make sure they are OK, and “be prepared for a long ride.”
Jerry Cornfield contributed to this story.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
