WA - State worker resigns amid allegation of inappropriate relationship

11/03/2007 OLYMPIA — Nora Cutshaw, a state worker responsible for escorting civilly committed sex offenders on approved trips, resigned on Oct. 22 in the wake of an allegation that she had an inappropriate relationship with one of them.

“We took the allegations very, very seriously and moved very quickly to ensure it wouldn’t happen again,” said Steve Williams, spokesman for the state Department of Social & Health Services. “We immediately began disciplinary action under state regulations. … It was pretty obvious we were going to give her a letter terminating her, but she got her letter of resignation in first.”

Cutshaw’s attorney, Bruce Finlay of Shelton, said his client is being “railroaded” and denied any wrongdoing. He called the allegation “mistaken innuendo,” and said they plan to sue the state.

“What they’re doing to this woman is shameful,” he said.

Cutshaw had been on administrative leave since the alleged incident, which occurred on April 1, when she escorted a man named Casper Ross from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island to a relative’s home in Lakewood.

People in the Special Commitment Center have served their prison sentences for sexual crimes but are held indefinitely though a civil process because they are considered to be dangerous.

Ross, 44, is a Level 3 sex offender who was classified as a violent predator. He was convicted of first-degree rape in 1987 for using a knife to kidnap a 12-year-old girl, taking her to a secluded location and raping her. He also has a sexual abuse conviction from 1980 in Oregon that involved a 15-year-old girl he met at a video arcade. In 1999, he was civilly committed to the Special Commitment Center, which houses 265 sexually violent predators.

Ross had completed six levels of treatments and was released to the “less restrictive alternative” area at the commitment center, Williams said. He was allowed to have pre-approved, escorted trips off the island as part of his treatment program to transition back into society, the DSHS spokesman said.

After the alleged improper contact with Cutshaw, Ross was moved back to the Special Commitment Center. A hearing is set for Nov. 16 to determine whether he’ll permanently lose his “less restrictive alternative” privileges.

Local connection

Cutshaw’s husband, Scott, is a former State Patrol trooper who worked in Grays Harbor County. In 1992, he was charged with bribery after allegedly conspiring with a McCleary Police officer to fix a drunken driving ticket.

Cutshaw maintained his innocence and said he thought it was a joke when the officer talked about fixing a ticket for his cousin. Cutshaw ended up pleading guilty to official misconduct, admitting only that he failed to report a ticket-fixing scheme. He was sentenced to five months in jail, and had his conviction vacated in 2006, according to Grays Harbor Superior Court records. Cutshaw now works as a fraud investigator for the state Department of Labor & Industries.

The Cutshaws currently live in Shelton.

Officer investigates

On April 1, Nora Cutshaw escorted Ross to his relative’s home in Lakewood. The visit was scheduled from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. At about 3:30, a local police officer conducted a routine check to make sure the pre-arranged trip was going as scheduled, according to Lakewood Police.

He said he found a state van parked in back of the house, knocked on the back door, the small window next to the door and the kitchen window before Cutshaw opened the back door. He said she looked “disheveled … and she was fixing her shirt.”

The officer said he checked her portfolio, the trip route plan, radio and cell phone, which took about a minute, then saw Ross walking out of a bedroom into the living room. Ross also looked “disheveled and was adjusting the belt around his waist,” the report said.

The officer said the house seemed “really quiet” and asked if anyone else was home. Ross said it was his cousin’s house, but “they were not around right now,” the report said.

The following day, Lakewood Police Chief Larry Saunders sent a letter to the Special Commitment Center’s superintendent, Henry Richards, requesting a full investigation, highlighting Ross’ criminal history and expressing concerns about the safety of the Lakewood community.

“(Ross) was civilly committed upon release from prison due to continuing tendencies for sexual predation that render him a grave danger to our communities,” Saunders wrote. “His actions in this incident appear to reaffirm those dangerous tendencies. …

“Moreover, given these potentially compromising circumstances, we are neither confident of Ms. Cutshaw’s commitment to the protocols nor her capacity to enforce them.”

‘Railroaded’

Cutshaw’s attorney said she “never had any inappropriate contact” with Ross at all.

“All of this has been arrived at through mistaken innuendo — a mistaken and completely incorrect view of what was seen,” Finlay said. “She’s being steamrolled and railroaded, and she’s not going to stand for it.”

The attorney said the bedroom can’t be seen from where the officer was and that Ross wasn’t even wearing a belt that day.

Finlay said his client plans to take legal action against everyone involved — DSHS, the Lakewood Police, even the news organizations that briefly reported on the incident in April.

“The whole thing was unbelievable, quite frankly,” he said. “You can imagine the situation Nora’s in. She’s horrified. Her employers aren’t supporting her and they’re using her as a scapegoat.”

Williams, the Department of Social & Health Services spokesman, said an internal investigation was completed and the “facts still stand.”

Records sought

Details of the investigation, including how often Cutshaw had escorted Ross off the island, have not been released. The Daily World has submitted a public records request for the report.

Cutshaw was hired as a residential rehabilitation counselor in 2004. They’re not therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists or even corrections officers, but simply staffers specially trained to watch and escort the sex offenders, Williams said.

The counselors do the driving and are required to stay in close proximity to the sex offender at all times. They are not armed, by law, but they do have radios and cell phones in order to contact law enforcement officers. Trip plans are filed with the relevant police agency ahead of time, Williams said.

Superintendent resigns from McNeil Island Special Commitment Center for sex offenders

By Ian Demsky; ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com
Published: 03/18/09 5:25 pm | Updated: 03/18/09 9:17 pm

The superintendent of the state’s Special Commitment Center for sex offenders has resigned, effective May 1. In a letter dated March 12 – released Wednesday to The News Tribune after offenders at the center began phoning the media with the news – Henry Richards announced he was stepping down from the job he took in 2004.

The letter does not say why Richards is leaving, but Department of Social and Health Services spokesman Steve Williams said Richards was returning to private practice and academia.

“It is my belief that as individuals were can best assist our clients and programs toward meaningful change when we are ourselves in transformation,” Richards’ letter reads. “In this spirit, the time has come for me to bring aspects of my professional and personal life, outside the arenas of clinical administration and program management, to a further state of completion.”

The McNeil Island center, which houses and treats civilly committed offenders, garnered unfavorable news coverage last year. “Investigators: Porn, drugs smuggled into center for sexual predators,” one headline from a Seattle TV station read.

Richards was not asked to leave, Williams said. A national search will be conducted for a new superintendent and the position will temporarily be filled by someone who is not vying for the permanent position.

Ian Demsky: 253-597-8872

McNeil Island prison searched cell by cell

IAN DEMSKY; ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com
Published: 11/10/08 12:35 am | Updated: 11/10/08 12:37 pm
The attempted suicide of a McNeil Island inmate in September highlighted a new high-tech threat for the state Department of Corrections: contraband cell phones.

Over the weekend, the entire prison was on lockdown while officers searched it stem to stern for illicit phones and other contraband. Such prisonwide searches are rare and expensive because of the manpower involved.

Information developed in the suicide case led to the Oct. 31 arrest of a McNeil corrections officer on suspicion of smuggling in at least one cell phone, a Washington State Patrol spokesman said. The News Tribune is not naming her because prosecutors have not filed any charges in the case.

Cell phones are dangerous behind bars because they allow inmates to have unmonitored contact with the outside world, including with drug and gang ties, prison officials say. Unlike calls made through prison phones, they can’t be recorded or screened.

The morning of his Sept. 18 suicide attempt, Leon Toney and another inmate were linked to a cell phone that had been smuggled into the prison, records show. It’s also clear from the department’s review of the incident that family members found out Toney was hurt not from prison officials, but from someone on the inside. They said the call came from another inmate using a cell phone and that they knew of several others inside.

The phone in the Toney case was the third found at McNeil in the past two years, officials said. No statewide figures were available, but DOC spokesman Chad Lewis said a survey of state prison administrators found they had seized only a couple phones each.

“The number we’ve seen aren’t that high,” Lewis said. “But this is different than most other types of contraband. You can only pass a cigarette around so many times. You can pass a cell phone around countless times.”

A special team of 44 officers from three other prisons was brought to McNeil on Saturday to conduct the two-day search, which went cell to cell and inmate to inmate through the 1,280-inmate prison.

The inmates were strip searched and officers crawled beneath beds and desks, peered into light fixtures, and made sure TVs and radios hadn’t been pried open so that contraband could be hidden inside. The two-man teams spent roughly 20 minutes per cell.

“It’s a serious thing to inconvenience a whole facility like this,” said Jocelyn “J” Hofe, who heads up the Department of Corrections’ emergency operations statewide. “It’s a disruption for the staff, visitors and inmates.”

Most facilities see such large-scale searches only every few years. But, officials noted, they only augment the daily cell searches the facilities already do.

Bringing in the specialized team from outside prisons adds fresh eyes, said DOC administrator Earl Wright, who supervises several prisons including McNeil. It also provides training opportunities for the specialized officers and McNeil staff.

Hofe said some contraband may have been flushed or destroyed when it became clear that a sweep was happening. “But it still gets it out of the prison,” she noted.

As of Sunday afternoon, officers turned up several homemade tattoo guns and a small amount of drugs. A syringe was found inside a jigsaw puzzle box in a common area. Also seized was a fist-sized pouch of tobacco that had been hidden inside an inmate’s radio. Investigators estimated it was worth $200 to $300 on the prison black market.

No cell phones were found, however.

“This is a whole new game for us,” McNeil Superintendent Ron Van Boening said in a recent interview. “They (cell phones) are getting smaller and smaller.”

The inmates know officials are looking for the phones and are going to great lengths to hide them, he said. It’s tough, officials admit, because some of the phones are small enough to be, in prison parlance, “keistered.”

The state Department of Corrections is weighing administrative and legislative approaches to increasing the penalties for being caught with a cell phone, said Lewis, the DOC spokesman. The department is also training its drug-sniffing dogs to find them, though budget cuts have reduced the number of dogs across the state from eight to two.

Cell phones aren’t just a problem in Washington. Last month, a state senator in Texas received a cell phone call from a death row inmate. The caller told the senator he knew that he had two daughters and gave their ages, address and other personal details he had gleaned from the Internet, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Officials found the phone had been used to make more than 2,800 calls in the previous month alone.

While prison officials stress the dangers cell phones pose behind bars, prisoner rights advocates say there’s another reason they’re coveted – they allow inmates to keep in touch with family.

Maintaining community and family ties is important for an inmate’s success upon release, corrections officials say. But at the same time, inmates and their families pay far more to talk to each other than the general public does.

Despite a rate cut in 2006, Washington’s rates remain among the highest in the country, according to the advocacy group Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants, or CURE. In surveying rates nationwide, the group ranked Washington ninth highest out of 46 states where data were available.

The rates, which can be as much as 22 times higher than the five cents per minute many South Sound residents pay for long distance, amount to a tax on some of the poorest members of society, said Kay Perry, coordinator for CURE’s Campaign to Promote Equitable Telephone Charges.

“A lot of states spend millions of dollars trying to help inmates transition out of prison and build a social network when they get out,” she said. “But the current telephone systems tear families apart. The family members pay for it – you’re punishing them only because they love somebody.”

While most types of inmate calls in Washington are now billed at a flat rate – either $3.15 or $3.50, depending on how it’s paid for – out-of-state calls cost $4.95 plus $.89 per minute, or $22.75 for a 20-minute call. The average wage for state inmates is about $1.15 per hour.

About 60 percent of what state inmates and their families spend on phone calls goes to programs that have nothing to do with phone service.

From September 2007 to September 2008, inmates at Washington’s 17 prisons and their families paid for $8.7 million in phone calls, according to records obtained by The News Tribune. Under a contract with Chicago-based FSH Communications, $5.1 million of that is given right back to the DOC.

Most of that money goes into an Offender Betterment Fund, which pays for items like school supplies for inmates’ children, books and staff for prison law libraries, and cable TV service. A quarter of it goes toward a state fund for crime victims and witnesses.

Perry says she understands the argument that the $5 million commission that returns to the DOC is $5 million that taxpayers don’t have to spend. But to her, it’s unfair to shift that burden to inmates and their families.

“It’s all of our responsibility,” she said. “When society makes the decision to incarcerate somebody, we have the responsibility to rehabilitate them. All citizens should have to pay for rehabilitation programs that help these people turn their lives around. Otherwise you’re taxing some very poor folk.”

Ian Demsky: 253-597-8872

blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

SEPT. 18:

A cell phone is linked to an inmate who attempted suicide at the McNeil Island prison.

OCT. 31:

A corrections officer is suspected of smuggling at least one cell phone into the facility.

NOV. 8:

A special team of 44 corrections officers begins a two-day search of each cell and each inmate to uncover contraband.

NOV. 9:

Prison officials report seizing several homemade tattoo guns and a small amount of drugs, a syringe and a fist-sized pouch of tobacco, but no cell phones.

Family wants answers in inmate's hospitalization

LUI KIT WONG/THE NEWS TRIBUNE

Valerie Toney, center, prays for her son, Leon Toney who's gravely ill at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. Leon's wife Rene Matthews-Toney, left, and Leon's sister, Domainquie Toney, right, hold Leon's hands to comfort him. They want to learn more about his injury.

A husband, brother and son spent 12 years in prison. Now he's in a coma.
IAN DEMSKY; ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com

Published: October 17th, 2008 12:30 AM
Updated: October 17th, 2008 07:14 AM

Leon Toney drifts in limbo between two worlds – justice meted out by the state and healing at the hands of his doctors.
The 31-year-old McNeil Island prison inmate has been in a coma since Sept. 18 when, according to records, he hanged himself in a segregation cell and was brought back to life by corrections staff members.

His family has practically made a home of the sixth-floor waiting room at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. Through their eyes, the last few weeks have been a battle for Toney's recovery and for answers.

They knew he had been caught with contraband and were worried that whoever was smuggling it in might have wanted to silence him.

From the state Department of Corrections perspective, the incident is straightforward. Officials, however, declined to discuss the specifics of what happened, with The News Tribune or with Toney's family as long as the incident is under review.

Last week, 21 days after Toney was flown to the hospital at the brink of death, the Corrections Department completed its review and affirmed its preliminary findings of attempted suicide.

Toney was 12 years into a 28-year assault and burglary sentence. At 19, he was convicted of shooting a man in the stomach after he and several others went to a Tacoma home to settle a score over $45 worth of sewing, court records say.

He was not someone who would have tried to take his own life, family members said.

"There's not even a question," said Toney's aunt, Charrene Robinson, who flew in from San Diego.

Family members said Toney had a wide support network and recently cleared a major hurdle in a legal appeal to get his sentence reduced.


REPORT GIVES TIMELINE

The prison's review of the incident found no foul play.

According to the review: Just after midnight Sept. 18, a corrections officer on rounds heard an inmate talking to a woman inside his cell. It turned out he was talking on a cell phone, which officers confiscated.

On the phone officials found photos of Toney "in his cell naked" and snapshots of nude women. Officers searched Toney's cell, found a charger that fit the phone and moved him to a segregation cell.

A time line assembled from video surveillance cameras showed Toney was placed in the segregation cell on F-Unit at 5:31 a.m. He was given breakfast at 7:02 a.m., and his tray was picked up an hour later.

He stuck a note, known as a kite, for mental health staff members in his door and a nurse came to talk to him about 10:25 a.m.

"I asked him if there was anything I could do for him," nurse Katherine Fish wrote in an incident report. "He said he hadn't slept in two or three days. … (He) told me his thoughts were keeping him awake. I asked him if it was because he was just placed in F-Unit. He said no, he'd had trouble sleeping a couple nights before that."

After Toney told Fish he was not planning to harm himself, she said she'd make sure the mental heath unit got the kite and would check on him at noon.

Officers serving lunch discovered Toney, a bed sheet around his neck, hanging from his TV stand at 11:41 a.m.

He had no pulse. Officers pulled him down and brought him out into the dayroom where they started CPR. He was revived, taken to a helipad and then to the hospital.

"After reviewing the camera footage from F-Unit there is no evidence of any staff misconduct," the report states.

FLOW OF INFORMATION

Family members say corrections officials kept them in the dark for weeks.

"If it's such an open-and-shut case, why won't they tell us anything?" Toney's wife, Rene, wondered as the days ticked by.

Since the department's review, Toney's relatives remain skeptical of the official version of events and frustrated by the indifference they said they've been shown.

They said many questions were left unanswered and that the department has been misleading. For example, the "naked" photos of Toney showed him only from the waist up.

"Leon Toney is not DOC No. 74586 to us," said Toney's sister, Domainquie Butler, 32. "He is my only brother, my mom's only son. He is a father, a husband, a nephew, a cousin, as well as friend to many, and no human should be treated this way."

Toney's mother, Valerie, who lives in Tacoma, said the family first found out Toney had been hurt when inmates contacted them using illicit cell phones. They immediately called the prison, but had a hard time getting any information.

The report states associate superintendent Sean Murphy told staff members, "People of his family have been calling and seeking information. Do not disclose any information to anyone. Refer them to (public information officer) Judy Hubert."

Prison officials explained in an Oct. 3 e-mail to the family that federal law allowed them to release information only to a designated emergency contact, in this case, Rene.

"They told me to go to the hospital," she said in a recent interview. "But they wouldn't even tell me if he was alive or dead."

Once there, Rene said, she was told her husband had tried to kill himself, but prison officials wouldn't provide details.

The department told the family a headquarters-level review would be conducted. That report was released Oct. 9. It affirmed initial findings and added new details that Toney might have been under mental strain.

"It is suspected that Mr. Toney had complex 'prison business' interests and gang affiliations that may have contributed stress to his life," the report said.

FAMILY QUESTIONS MEDICAL CARE

When Toney arrived at St. Joseph, his prospects for recovery were grim, and doctors were throwing around words like "brain dead" and "organ donation," said Butler, his sister, who flew in from Hutto, Texas, to be at her brother's side.

Under Corrections Department policy the family is consulted on major medical decisions, but Toney's relatives said they frequently felt like they didn't have much control.

Rene, who married Toney when they were both 19, said that one night she camped out in the waiting room and called the nurses station at the other end of the floor every hour to find out if his condition had changed. She said she was repeatedly told everything was fine, but the next morning a doctor told her Toney had been having seizures throughout the night.

In the following days, the Corrections Department granted Toney a "compassionate release," otherwise known as a medical furlough, which can be revoked if and when he gets better. It allows Toney to be supervised by a community corrections officer, rather than a bedside guard.

The family wants to see Toney's sentence commuted so they can pursue additional treatment options for him beyond what the Corrections Department and hospital officials feel is needed and are willing to pay for.

Family members say they know the odds are long, but continue to hope that Toney will recover.

"The doctor summed it up in four words," Rene said. "'He's not brain dead.'"

Ian Demsky: 253-597-8872

blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

McNeil Island prison worker charged with theft

Story Published: Aug 30, 2008 at 11:19 AM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 1:27 AM PDT
By Associated Press TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A former fiscal analyst at the McNeil Island Corrections Center has been charged stealing $103,000.

Forty-eight-year-old Colleen L. Brixey is accused of taking the money from a fund used to improve the lives of prison inmates. Brixey pleaded innocent Friday to theft and forgery, and bail was set at $5,000.

According to prosecutors, the case came to light after a bank representative called to verify a check in November. The check was written to Brixey's husband and bore the name of another worker in the office who said the signature was not his.

An audit indicated that signatures were forged on 36 checks totaling $103,000 over a two-year period. All were written to Brixey's husband and deposited in the couple's account.

Hanged man attempted suicide or prison scandal??

Tacoma], [WA],[Sep 18 2008] –Leon Toney was locked alone in a cell at the medium-security prison's segregation wing when an orderly found him Thursday, unconscious with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck.Toney was locked alone in a cell at the medium-security prison's segregation wing when an orderly found him Thursday, unconscious with a bedsheet wrapped around his neck.[The McNeil Island Corrections Center has not giving the family any or very little answers have been provided for serious questions in terms of their procedures and how this could happen in a controlled environment. Keep in mind, this happened while Leon Toney was in isolation. This is a very secure process within the prison process. There are guidelines and procedures that regulate how this process should carried out. The Neil Island Corrections Center has all rights regarding the medical well being of this man. Several times family members were cohersed by (St Joseph Medical Centers Staff) into making an on the spot decision on “Pulling the Plug” and donate his organs without proper medical advice. At that time they were informed that his
condition was grim from a PA who isn’t certified to practice medicine in the state of Washington without supervision. [After her son was found, Valerie Toney said, it was other inmates, not prison officials, who broke the news to her. Text messages sent by inmates using phones smuggled into the prison poured into her phone, she said. But when she pressed for more information, prison staff members stonewalled her and Toney's other relatives. Valerie Toney said her son paid $500 to have a cell phone. That phone, she said, was the "serious contraband" that landed Toney in isolation. Van Boening disputed that assertion, saying that other contraband was found in the cell. He declined to say what guards uncovered.
[Valerie Toney said she believes her son was attacked by someone worried that he would reveal how he received the illicit cell phone as well as other illegal contraband.]
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/380134_toney23.html)

This incident took place two weeks ago the family of Leon Toney merciful pleads that the required agencies take expedient actions to their request

1. A full independent investigation by independent agencies of the incident reported “suicide attempt” of Leon Toney at McNeil Island Prison on September 19, 2008

2. A full independent investigation by an independent source of alleged official’s corruption prison abuse of inmates.

3. A complete release of Mr. Leon Toney to family The McNeil Island Corrections Center has granted him a compassionate release with supervised custody through medical furlough which means that if he makes any recovery he is placed back in the custody of those who have harmed him...] family seeking pardon, medical release, clemency what have you.

4. Department of Corrections continues to pay for Leon Toney Medical treatment& possible therapies, present and future.

5. After independent investigation corruptive persons or collective personals are founded, they will be persecuted to the fullest.

6. MC Neil Island to be reformed or to be completely closed.



Leon Plea for Justice

Washington’s McNeil Island State Prison fined for willful and serious asbestos violations

Supervisors ignored safety concerns raised by inmates at McNeil Island state prison and made them remove potentially deadly asbestos-laden tile with no protective equipment and without taking common precautions, state records say.

As a result, at least 18 people – eight offenders, eight Department of Corrections employees and a flooring contractor’s crew – were exposed to cancer-causing particles, according to a state Department of Labor and Industries case file.

In July, L&I levied a $28,400 fine and cited the prison for two “willful” and seven “serious” violations related to three projects done in late 2007.

Prison officials told L&I they thought they were doing the removal correctly and that they didn’t think the Puget Sound Clean Air Act’s asbestos regulations applied to the work, records say.

The Department of Corrections does not dispute the underlying facts of the case, said David Block, safety manager in the department’s office of risk management. But the safety shortcomings were “an irregular event and inconsistent with current DOC procedures and past practice,” Block said.

The state’s director of prisons has ordered a review, he added.

The department has appealed the L&I ruling but only to ask the agency to reduce the severity of the most serious violations, he said. Corrections also has asked L&I to allow it to divert some of the fine money to a training budget for DOC maintenance workers and supervisors “to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Block said.

In November and December, vinyl tile held in place by toxic cement was removed from administrative areas at the prison without the required precautions, such using a vacuum with an air filter or water to keep the asbestos-laden dust from becoming airborne, the L&I report says.

Two supervisors involved with the tile removal had been certified by the state in asbestos removal, the report noted. Gar Rodside, the construction maintenance supervisor, became a certified asbestos supervisor in 2000 and had taken seven refresher courses, though his certification had lapsed at the time of the work. The other supervisor, Tom Hili, was certified in 2004 and had taken three refresher courses.

“All asbestos certification classes, for workers and supervisors, emphasize the use of water as a universal control of asbestos fibers,” the report says. “A certified asbestos supervisor should know the proper method of removing class 2 asbestos material.”

Both Rodside and Hili declined to comment for this story. They remain employed at the Department of Corrections and have not been disciplined as a result of L&I findings, DOC spokesman Chad Lewis said.

According to the L&I report, Rodside told offenders who raised concerns about their safety that there was asbestos in the tile and cement, but assured them it wasn’t dangerous.

When the offenders asked about using water to minimize the dust, Rodside said it wasn’t needed.

Records show there were conflicting accounts about how much dust the projects unleashed.

“The offenders state there was a large amount of dust during the removal,” inspectors noted. The superintendent’s administrative assistant also said there was a “large amount of dust when the floor tile was removed outside her office.”

Meanwhile, the facility’s plant manager and Rodside, the construction maintenance supervisor, said “there was little dust during the removal of the tile.”

Despite the risk from exposure, which has been linked to lung cancer and other illnesses, L&I said the danger in this case was relatively low due to the low percentage of asbestos in the tile and glue, and the fact the exposure was limited to a couple of hours on three occasions.

News Tribune staff writer Adam Lynn contributed to this report.

WHAT WAS DONE WRONG

Here’s a look at the details of the two “willful” and seven “serious” violations the state Department of Labor and Industries found related to the removal of tile containing asbestos at McNeil Island prison in 2007. Some violations included more than one problem.

WILLFUL:

* Not using wetting agents to control potentially deadly dust.

* Sweeping up tile and sealant while dry.

* Not using a vacuum with a HEPA filter.

SERIOUS:

* No direct oversight by certified supervisor.

* Offenders were not certified to remove asbestos.

* Failure to provide written notice of the presence of asbestos to those working nearby.

* Failure to use respirators.

* No exposure assessment done before removal.

* Tile mechanically removed outside of a “negative pressure” environment.

* Tile was not removed intact.

* “Critical barriers” were not used to prevent spread of dust.

Source: Department of Labor and Industries

Leon's Plea For Justice Former guard gets suspended sentence for prison tryst

A Pierce County judge handed a one-year suspended sentence Monday to a 40-year-old woman who worked as a guard at the state prison on McNeil Island until she got caught having an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.

Gina M. Mann pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of second-degree custodial sexual misconduct and one count of third-degree introducing contraband. Both are misdemeanor crimes. Mann admitted she embraced and kissed the man in 2006 and gave him a ring, according to court records.

Her attorney, Terry Robinson, told Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick on Monday that his client sought comfort from the inmate after another man incarcerated at the prison began harassing and threatening her.

"An affection grew between the two of them," Robinson said. "I don't know why she let this got on this far, but it did."

Mann, who no longer works for the Department of Corrections, apologized in court.

"I do apologize for crossing that line," she told Worswick. "I damaged my family. I damaged his family."

Worswick put Mann on two years probation and also ordered her not to seek a job in law enforcement during that time.

The inmate with which she had the relationship, who is serving time for manslaughter, was transferred out of state following the revelation of the relationship.


http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime/2008/03/03/former_guard_gets_suspended_sentence_for

Leon Toney Plea For Justice: Closure of McNeil Island prison on the table

Leon Toney Plea For Justice: Closure of McNeil Island prison on the table

Posted by Jennifer Sullivan

Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said today that the Senate is weighing the closure of the country's last island prison that can only be accessed by boat.

McNeil Island Corrections Center, in Steilacoom, Pierce County, is one of the most expensive prisons in the state to operate because its age and location, Hargrove said. Lawmakers are searching for ways to close the $8.5 billion state budget shortfall.

McNeil Island also is home to the Special Commitment Center, the state's mental health treatment program for civilly committed sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences. The Special Commitment Center would not be affected by any closure because it is managed by the Department of Social and Health Services, not the Department of Corrections.

The medium security prison costs about $49 million a year to operate.

McNeil island had been a federal penitentiary from 1875 until 1976, according to the Department of Corrections (DOC). The state of Washington started leasing the facility in 1981. In 1984, the island was officially deeded to the state, DOC said.

DOC spokesman Chad Lewis said the prison has about 1,300 inmates, making it the sixth largest of the state's 15 prisons. He said it costs an average of $37,000 per year to house inmates at McNeil Island. Citing a 2007, statistic, Lewis said the state spends an average of about $31,000 to house inmates.

Hargrove emphasized that the possible prison closure is one of many options being weighed by the Senate. He said they are also talking about keeping inmates transferred to out-of-state prisons for overcrowding and cost savings reasons in those other states longer.

Hargrove said the final decisions will be contained in the Senate budget. Senate Democrat staffers said the budget is expected to be released on Tuesday.

UPDATE: DSHS spokesman Steve Williams called this afternoon to say that closure of McNeil Island would dramatically impact his agency.

"They [DOC} are the lifeline to get us from the island and the main land," Williams said. "We rely on DOC for transportation, they operate the boats. They operate the fire department and they have an emergency response team, kind of like a SWAT team, that we can call on if we have an emergency."

Williams said there are more than 280 sex offenders at the Special Commitment Center and more than 400 DSHS employees who work on the island.

http://forums.prisonofficer.org/washington/6884-closure-mcneil-island-prison-table.html

More negligence at McNeil Island PrisonTweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum are running this facility.

When law enforcement or other authorities assume the custody of any person, they also assume the responsibility for keeping them safe, and for protecting such persons and others from danger.I will say this, I am glad they apprehended the child molester but the fact remains he should have never been able to escape so easily.

The state Department of Corrections knows it was lucky that inmate Donald Dravis didn’t make it to the mainland after walking out of the gate of McNeil Island prison in December and boarding the outbound ferry.

The department’s own review of the incident found an “environment of denial,” a “false sense of security,” and a “lack of rapid response.” There was “some confusion, chaos” and “the appearance that staff didn’t know how to respond.” The escape siren wasn’t sounded, the shift commander wasn’t immediately notified, and the escape protocols weren’t initiated until the associate superintendent started them 25 minutes into the affair.

If it hadn’t been for the “good instincts” and sharp eyes of officer Jason Meyers, “this team is convinced offender Dravis would have made it to the mainland,” the report says.

In the same paragraph, reviewers acknowledged that even Meyers “did not follow emergency response guidelines.”

The near-escape exposed a number of security issues, including that civilian island residents “come in and out of the facility without IDs” to pick up mail. The incident prompted a 30-point improvement agenda, much of which officials say has already been implemented. No decisions have been made about staff discipline, officials said Monday.

The near-escape has also raised awareness about preparedness across the department’s 15 prisons, said deputy prisons director Earl Wright.

“We don’t have a great number of escapes – knock on wood,” he said. “But because we don’t have them on a regular basis, we’re always challenged to stay at the level of alert we need to be at.”

Sean Murphy, the associate superintendent at McNeil, said the prison has taken a “back to basics” approach that includes new security features, additional staff training and a clarification of job duties.

Few details were released at the time of the attempt, but the report, released to The News Tribune under a public records request, outlines what happened.

‘SPUR OF THE MOMENT’

Dravis told officials reviewing the incident that on the morning of Dec. 29, he decided on the “spur of the moment” to leave. He said he thought that if he could get caught on the outside he would get someone to listen to his complaint that his release date had been unfairly extended. Dravis is serving time on first- and second-degree child molestation convictions.

Leaving his prison-issued ID card in his room, Dravis walked through the sliding door at the control booth. The booth controls access to the main prison building, but an additional checkpoint and perimeter gate must be passed to get to the ferry.

Dravis was dressed in civilian clothing, which offenders at McNeil are allowed to wear. Civilian clothing is already scheduled to be phased out to save money on prison laundry costs.

“He said that there were so many opportunities that he did not think not having an ID would be a big deal,” the report says.

Accounts differ as to whether Dravis exited the facility alone or with a group of people.

Sgt. William Anderson was working the control booth that afternoon. He was alone while another correctional officer was on break. Anderson told reviewers that a man, later identified as Dravis, was standing with a group of mental health workers and carrying a clipboard. Psychological associate Carson Carter was among the group and talked about going to a casino, Anderson said.

He opened the slider and let them go toward the outer gate.

But both Dravis and Carter told reviewers they had each passed through the control booth alone. Carter reported that Dravis was already on the ferry when he arrived; he was “sitting with a lady and they looked like they were talking,” Carter said.

Because of the “conflicting testimony, the team was not able to substantiate if offender Dravis was alone or in a group of individuals when entering and exiting major control,” the report says.

Officials said security video does not clarify whether Dravis left alone or with a group.

Officer David Snow was stationed at the prison gate house near the outer perimeter. He stopped Dravis and asked to see his ID. Dravis feinted, fumbling in his shirt for it and then said he must have left it in his truck. Snow let him pass.

Meyers saw the exchange and thought he recognized Dravis, the report says. He followed Dravis down to the ferry dock and onto the boat.

Meyers walked up and said, “Dravis.” Dravis looked up.

Meyers asked him what he was doing. Dravis said he’d been released, but couldn’t produce any paperwork.

Meyers then left the boat and tried to verify the story with Anderson in the control booth. He also notified Lt. Dennis Simons, the shift commander, that they might be dealing with a potential escape. Simons sent a sergeant down to the dock to act as the on-site supervisor and called the boat captain and told him not to leave.

Pretty soon officers started forming a circle around him on the boat, Dravis said. Dravis began to “make a scene” and the officers evacuated the boat. The officers were eventually able to talk him into leaving the vessel.

The reviewers said apprehension protocols weren’t followed and noted a lack of supervisory direction during a use-of-force incident after Dravis had been recaptured.

ALTERCATION BACK AT PRISON

What happened when they got back to the prison was also a matter of concern for the reviewers.

Both Dravis and Snow agreed that Snow had told the inmate something to the effect of “Five minutes of freedom for five years of time.”

Dravis was placed against the staff mailboxes while the officers figured out what to do with him.

In the measured tones of the report, the next thing that happened was that “Offender Dravis tensed and shifted his weight at which time he was escorted to the ground.”

Officer Trevor Humphrey said it looked like Dravis had “pushed his weight back on the escorting officers.” Officer Jacob Cummings said “Dravis suddenly tensed up and he (Cummings) put pressure on him and offender Dravis pushed back.”

Dravis said he was “trying to adjust himself and was taken to the ground, tackled, elbowed in the lower back, his ankle turned (at) a 45 degree angle and he heard a couple of pops.”

The report says there was “a lack of supervisory direction during application and direction of use of force.” It also points out that there was no debriefing after the incident.

The News Tribune offered the involved officers a chance to comment through McNeil officials. They all declined.

Among the reviewers’ recommendations were:

• Develop a process for updating offenders’ institutional photos as their appearance changes.

• Revise orders to include language about the responsibility for verifying IDs.

• Add training for staff in emergency response procedures and offender apprehension.

The last successful escape from McNeil was in 1992.

Rapist Timothy Webb hid in a tractor-trailer full of furniture that was brought by barge to the mainland. He was arrested in Spokane a week later.

Ian Demsky: 253-597-8872

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/674100.html

McNeil Island crack-smuggling scheme thwarted

McNeil Island crack-smuggling scheme thwarted
By The Associated Press

Federal and state authorities say they've foiled a conspiracy to bring crack cocaine into Washington's sex offender lockup on McNeil Island.

Two people have been arrested this week — Paepaega Matautia Jr., a 39-year-old employee of the Special Commitment Center, and Lawrence Williams, a 50-year-old resident.

The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle says Matautia delivered cocaine to Williams in the facility's mail room on eight occasions, and that the case was cracked with the help of a confidential informant.

Matautia made his initial appearance in federal court Thursday on a charge of attempted cocaine possession with attempt to distribute. Williams, who was arrested Friday, was expected to appear Monday on a charge of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine.

"We knew about this investigation, and we cooperated fully," said Steve Williams, a spokesman for the state Department of Social and Health Services, which runs the commitment center. "We have no tolerance for this sort of thing."

Matautia worked as a mailroom security officer, helping to ensure residents don't receive contraband through the mail, Steve Williams said. The man cleared a background check before he was hired in December 2003.

His attorney, Phil Brennan, said Friday he had just received the case and had no immediate comment.

Lawrence Williams was admitted to the commitment center in August 2002. He was convicted of first-degree rape with a deadly weapon in 1980.

It was not immediately clear if Lawrence Williams had been assigned a lawyer.

E. coli found in McNeil Island water

E. coli found in McNeil Island water
By Carol M. Ostrom

Seattle Times staff reporter

Inmates and workers at the McNeil Island Corrections Center are drinking bottled water after lab tests over the weekend revealed the presence of fecal coliform and E. coli in the island's water system.
No illnesses have been conclusively linked to the contamination, although a few reports described symptoms that could be related, according to state Health Department and prison officials.

Residents of the island, who number about 125, are being advised to boil water used for drinking, making ice, washing dishes or preparing food. Bottled water is being distributed to inmates, staff members and visitors, said Corrina McElfish, spokeswoman for the corrections center.

Bob James, regional manager of the Department of Health's drinking-water program, said the sample that tested positive for E. coli also had lower levels of chlorine, which is used to disinfect the water. The island's drinking water comes from a lake on the island; it is disinfected and filtered at a treatment plant and piped to a storage reservoir or into the distribution system serving the prison, other state facilities and private homes.

James said the source of the problem was being investigated. Meanwhile, the system will be flushed and disinfected where necessary, and chlorine levels will be increased and the water sampled again. "We err on the somewhat conservative side," James said. "The prudent thing is to take action."

The tests on the water were done in two stages, James said. The first samples showed higher levels of fecal coliform, bacteria that water-quality experts use as an indicator there could be disease-causing organisms in the water. The second tests, done Saturday, showed higher levels of E. coli, a bacterium often found in the intestinal tracts and feces of livestock.

Water systems typically have not been a source for a particularly dangerous strain of E. coli, O157:H7. In 1993, an outbreak of that strain, stemming from tainted hamburgers, sickened 500 people and killed three children; an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1996 linked to apple juice sickened 66 people in several Western states and killed a Colorado girl.

McNeil Island Corrections Center, operated by the state, houses approximately 1,050 adult male felons and employs about 600 staff members. The Special Commitment Center, operated by the state Department of Social and Health Services, is located in a separate facility on the island and houses 199 sexual predators. Steve Williams, a department spokesman, said none of the center's residents or staff members had been sickened.

Carol M. Ostrom: 206-464-2249 or costrom@seattletimes.com