Todd Wiggs Receives WSU Criminal Justice Award

Todd Wiggs

Todd Wiggs, Community Corrections Supervisor for Spokane’s Sex Offender Community Supervision Program, has received Washington State University’s Outstanding Alumni Award for Criminal Justice, according to the WSU liberal arts newsletter, The Chronicle (www.wsu.edu).

Each year, the university honors the work of one WSU alum who contributes to the vitality of the state by creating and supporting safe communities.

”He is a professional who demonstrates leadership in the field of criminal justice and is an innovator in connecting the importance of research to evidence-based practice,” said WSU Professor Faith E. Lutze.

Wiggs, who has worked at DOC for about 20 years, guest lectures at WSU on topics such as: corrections in Washington, supervision of sex offenders in the community, sentencing guidelines and sentencing options. He recently was appointed to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s Correctional Training Standards & Education Board.

“He exemplifies what the Department is seeking in both a staff member and a supervisor,” said Field Administrator Jack Kopp.

DOC Wastewater Facilities Earn Perfect Scores from Department of Ecology

Sewage treatment plants at Olympic Corrections Center and McNeil Island Corrections Center have received the Department of Ecology’s "Outstanding Wastewater Treatment Plant" award for 2006.  The award is a first for these facilities.

Treatment plants earning the award must not have spilled wastewater into Washington’s waters and must have passed all Department of Ecology test requirements.  Each plant’s record-keeping is stringently reviewed.

Fifty-six of 321 treatment plants in Washington earned the Ecology award in 2006.  Only 14 plants were in full compliance with the requirements of their wastewater permits when Ecology began keeping track of perfect records in 1995.

Larch Corrections Center received the Ecology award in 2004.

Douglas Cole to Manage Women’s Prison

Douglas O. Cole is the new superintendent of Washington Corrections Center for Women effective July 1.

Cole has worked for DOC for 23 years, including 12 with female offenders in various capacities such as sergeant, lieutenant, captain and Correctional Mental Health Program Manager. Since 2002, Cole has served as Associate Superintendent at McNeil Island Corrections Center.

Correctional Officer Helps Tenants Out of a Burning Building

Paulette Thompson

Correctional Officer Paulette Thompson’s typical day of supervising one of the Seattle work crews turned out of the ordinary on April 6 when she saw a woman frantically pleading for help outside an apartment building in West Seattle.

Thompson stopped and was told the building was on fire and not everybody had evacuated. She called the fire department, secured her work crew and began to assist.

She went into the building to check on two tenants and found they were outside and safe. Then she went back inside to help one woman who had not come out of the building. When the woman responded to her knocks on her door, she refused to leave without her kitten.

Thompson convinced the woman that the fire department was on its way and would save her kitten.  The woman finally agreed to leave the burning building. Once everybody was out of the building, Thompson and her crew remained at the scene to reassure the tenants that everything was going to be all right.

“Thompson’s alertness and quick action may have saved three West Seattle residents from potentially life threatening injuries,” said Jim Thorburn, Seattle Work Crew Community Corrections Supervisor.

Thorburn said such examples of Thompson’s daily commitment to the safety of her crew and the community are true reflections of her professionalism as a DOC Correctional Officer.

Fortunately, everyone in the building escaped the fire that day — including the kitten.

Littlerock Elementary School Kids Send Big Thanks to CCCC

A "thank you" card from Tanner, a fourth-grade student
at Littlerock Elementary School

Offenders at Cedar Creek Corrections Center (CCCC) recently received words of thanks — and a little advice and encouragement — from students at Littlerock Elementary School in Littlerock.

Each year, CCCC offenders create about 30 bird house kits to support Littlerock Elementary’s partnership with the Nature Conservancy. The kits are created from scrap lumber that is a byproduct of a sawmill operated by the Department of Natural Resources located at CCCC. The children then put the houses together and paint them.

“The Nature Conservancy is actively attempting to restore rural areas and get them back to what they were before man intervened and disrupted the ecosystem,” said local business adviser Tom Matthews. “The bird houses are an effort to get blue birds back into surrounding areas.”

CCCC’s donation of the bird house kits is part of a larger partnership agreement it has with Littlerock Elementary. Over the years, CCCC has participated in a number of community projects involving the school, including constructing coat racks, block toys and sand boxes, and building a garden and benches for their gazebo.

The children at Littlerock Elementary were very appreciative and showed their thanks by creating "thank you" cards for the staff and offenders at CCCC.

While expressing his appreciation, one boy named Tanner couldn’t help but offer a little advice to the offenders who had produced the bird house kits. In his card, he wrote:

“I know you did some bad things in the past just let go of it. I know you guys can do some great things like the wood for the bird houses. I just want you guys to know you can change your lifes and thanks for the wood, thanks a lot.”

Inmate’s Badly Broken Leg Splinted with Chainsaw Blades

The chainsaws Olympic Corrections Center (OCC) inmates normally use to thin trees in the thick woods were recently put to use in an entirely different way — to splint an inmate’s badly broken leg.

After a day of thinning trees, an inmate accidentally stepped on an old cedar block and slipped into a hole. With his foot pinned between two pieces of wood, his momentum carried him forward, causing a compound leg fracture.

Department of Natural Resources crew supervisor Eric Steffen used the only resource available to splint the broken leg — two chainsaw blades. The ride out of the woods was extremely painful and bumpy for the injured inmate, but Correctional Officer Oly Archibald drove him to the Forks Community Hospital as fast as he could.

Hospital medical staff who treated the inmate were impressed with Steffen’s splint job. They joked that you know you’re in Forks when saw blades are used as splints.

From 1998 to January 2007 Steffen worked as a Correctional Officer at OCC, where he received in-service first-aid training. Correctional Officers Gretchen Pegram and Roben Smith and Registered Nurse Lyla Sharp have done an excellent job teaching the basics of first aid over the years, Steffen said.

“Each of them takes obvious pride in the importance of first aid and they each offer a unique and effective approach to instructing,” Steffen said.

Steffen has since taken additional field-oriented first aid training classes at DNR that can be utilized in the assortment of environments most DNR employees work in.

The inmate who suffered the broken leg reportedly was very appreciative of Steffen’s treatment and quick decision making. He is in good spirits and recovering well but disappointed he won’t be able to work for DNR for quite some time. His leg will be in a cast up to eight weeks.