Offender Hospitalized After Fight with Cellmate

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                    June 30, 2009

An offender at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center is being treated at a local hospital for injuries he received during a fight with his cellmate Monday morning. The Department of Corrections and the Connell Police Department are investigating the incident.

The fight occurred shortly after 7 a.m. Monday on the second tier of a medium-custody unit at the prison. Staff were notified of the fight and responded to the scene where they found the offender unconscious and bleeding from a head wound.  

Scott McDonald, 45, was taken to Kadlec Medical Center in Tri-Cities early Monday morning and was then transferred Tuesday to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

“The safety of the offenders in our facilities is a top priority,” said Prisons Director Dick Morgan. “The thoughts and prayers of the whole Department go out to Scott McDonald and his entire family.  Also the Department will aggressively investigate this incident and work collaboratively with local law enforcement and prosecutors to assure that those involved are held responsible for this terrible act.”

The other offender involved in the fight, 32-year-old Kenneth Smith, was placed in segregation.

In addition to potentially responding to criminal charges Smith could be subject to a prison disciplinary sanction. Fighting is a serious infraction in prison which can result in the loss of earned time, loss of privileges and additional time in segregation.

The Department has taken aggressive action to reduce violence in Washington prisons. There has been an overall drop in prison violence since the introduction of a statewide violence reduction strategy in the spring of 2008. The violence prevention measures include better tracking of violent incidents and their causes and better methods of identifying and separating offenders who may cause violence.

Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell houses 765 minimum- and medium-custody offenders.

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Contact:  Maria Peterson, Communications Department (360) 725-8804



 


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