Corrections officer assaulted by inmate at Monroe prison
Aug 24, 2012, 5:24 AM | Updated: 6:25 am
The Washington Corrections Department says a mentally ill inmate at the state prison at Monroe has assaulted a corrections officer, sending the officer to a hospital.
Corrections spokeswoman Selena Davis did not identify the officer injured Thursday and said she could not discuss his condition or the nature of his injuries. She did say they were not life-threatening.
Davis says a 33-year-old inmate identified as Jimi Hamilton tackled and punched the officer as he stood at his post inside a living unit in the prison’s Special Offender Unit. She says other corrections officers broke up the assault within 7 seconds.
Hamilton was transferred to maximum security. He is serving a 14-year sentence for two robbery counts in Pierce County.
Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl was killed in January 2011 in the chapel at the Monroe Correctional Complex. Inmate Byron Scherf is charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the death.
“We’re still involved with that case also, so another case on top of that. This is of course not how the system is supposed to work here,” prison spokeswoman Debbie Willis tells KING 5.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
