By Cathy Logg
Herald Writer
MONROE — A Washington State Reformatory inmate repeatedly stabbed himself Thursday night at the same time prison staff were responding to a fight involving about 18 inmates that broke out during an intramural soccer game.
The stabbing victim, a 25-year-old Lynnwood man, was listed in satisfactory condition at Providence Everett Medical Center’s Colby Campus and was expected to be released late Thursday, a nursing supervisor said.
The reformatory was locked down and corrections officers searched cells, said Willie Daigle, an associate superintendent at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
A fight broke out about 6:35 p.m. during a soccer game between a team made up exclusively of blacks and a team made up of whites, Daigle said. There were no weapons involved. The inmates involved suffered minor injuries. Prison staff broke up the fight.
Staff members initially were concerned that the fight and the stabbing were connected and called for outside help. Washington State Patrol troopers, Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies and Monroe police responded to the prison, but the staff had the incident under control by that time, he said. The cause of the fight was undetermined.
The Lynnwood man transferred from the Twin Rivers facility on Wednesday and was placed in segregation as a disciplinary measure because he refused to take his medication, Daigle said. The man suffers from schizophrenia and has four prior infractions for self-mutilation, he said.
The man was imprisoned in December 1997 on a first-degree robbery conviction from King County.
Staff members found him in his cell and administered first aid until paramedics arrived.
"Everything was fine with him," Daigle said. "We don’t know what triggered this."
The inmate was not on a suicide watch.
The prison was expected to remain locked down at least until today. Some disciplinary action is likely regarding the fight, Daigle said.
There are about 2,200 inmates at the correctional complex’s three facilities; about 830 of them are in the reformatory.
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