From the Editor - Prison Legal News

April 2008
Oregon Sheriff Sentenced to Jail/Sex-Offender Registration
On August 28, 2007, the former
sheriff of Curry County Oregon,
was sentenced to one year in jail and
ordered to register as a sex offender, for
groping three female county employees.
Mark Metcalf spent nearly 25 years in
law enforcement. He was appointed Curry
County Sheriff in 2003, then elected to the
position by voters in 2004.
In August 2006, Kim Wood, a Curry
County sheriff civil deputy reported that
Metcalf sexually harassed her. A state
investigation was launched, during which
two other employees––Deputy Tax Collector
Sheryl Luzmoor, and Legal assistant
Colleen Wallace––brought additional
accusations against Metcalf.
In June 2007, voters recalled Metcalf
by a margin of 2-to-1. He was then tried
criminally on the women’s allegations, in
neighboring Coos County. During the
trial, at Metcalf’s request, the women
testified that he rubbed his body against
theirs, touched their breasts, and slipped
his hand beneath their clothing. Metcalf
denied Wood’s accusations and claimed
that his conduct with the other women
was consensual.
A six-member jury convicted Metcalf
of eleven misdemeanors: four counts
of third-degree sexual harassment, four
counts of harassment, and three counts
of first-degree official misconduct.
“There was simply no truth to the
assertion by the defense that any of this
conduct was consensual,” said Darin
Tweedt, an Assistant Oregon Attorney
General brought in to prosecute the case.
“He was a powerful person in the community,
and none of these victims knew how
to protect themselves form him.”
“You chose your power as sheriff to
intimidate, violate, lie and harm,” wrote
Wood in a letter read during Metcalf’s
August 28, 2007 sentencing. “You got
enjoyment from your sick games. I also
know that Sheryl, Colleen and I are not
the only women you violated over the
years. These other women were too afraid
to come forward. So this is the only justice
they will ever get.”
Metcalf faced a maximum of eleven
years in custody. Coos County Circuit
Court Judge Richard Barron elected, instead,
to sentence him to 360 days in jail
and a three-year term of probation. He
also ordered Metcalf to register as a sex
offender, prohibited him from supervising
female employees or contacting the
victims, and ordered him to give 24-hour
notice before going to the Curry County
Courthouse. Following sentencing, Metcalf
was taken into custody.
“I’m very pleased with the sentence,”
said Tweedt. “I think the judge did the
right thing and accurately reflected the
criminal conduct committed.”
Metcalf’s former colleagues weren’t
36
quite so pleased. “Shock, disappointment,
and disgust are the three words that sum it
up,” said Dave Burright, executive director
of the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association.
“He betrayed not only his own staff, but
the people of the county and the badge
he wore.”
Source: The Oregonian
Washington State Opens
Environmentally-Friendly Control Unit
In October 2007, the Monroe
Correctional Complex (MCC),
Washington State’s largest prison, opened
the first prison building in Washington
State to be certified as “green” by the
U.S. Green Building Council. The unit, a
new segregation building with 200 bunks,
consists of a 100-bunk Intensive Management
Unit (IMU) for prisoners who are
placed there at the whim of prison officials
for indefinite, long term stays and a 100-
bunk unit for prisoners spending a shorter
period in segregation.
At 2,500-bunks, not including the new
segregation building, MCC is Washington
State’s largest prison. Located 45 minutes
from Seattle, overcrowding has long been an
issue at MCC. Relatives of prisoners claim
that the crowded conditions led to violence,
including the murder of several prisoners.
The new segregation building cost
$39.5 million. The price tag included a
rainwater collection system for toiletflushing
water and low energy lighting.
The Washington State Legislature
passed state laws requiring that new prisons
be energy efficient even though construction
costs of such prisons are higher than those of
conventional prisons. Thus, the new “greenrated.”
2,048-bunk prison unit at Coyote
Ridge will cost $254 million. However,
according to Washington Department of
Corrections (DOC) officials, the extra cost
will pay for itself in the long run by reducing
operating costs. Of course, this assumes
things turn out as planned. PLN has previously
reported on the shoddy construction of
other Washington state prisons that resulted
in millions of dollars of repairs.
“It costs a little bit more to build,”
said David Jansen, head of the DOC’s
capital programs. “But over the life of the
building it ends up costing less” in utilities
by Matt Clarke
and maintenance costs.
The new control unit follows the typical
pattern of other Intensive Management
Units in Washington state. Prisoners are
locked in their 8-by-12-foot cells 24-hours
a day, with a nominal one hour of “recreation”
outside the cell five days a week.
They are allowed 15-minute showers three
times a week. Prisoners are observed 24
hours a day from an elevated, hi-tech control
room and the 172 security cameras,
placed throughout the 77,000-square-foot
building. Prisoners are limited to six
months in the segregation unit, but can stay
in IMU indefinitely. The only difference in
how the two are run is that IMU prisoners
are allowed a TV and a radio.
Allison Parker, deputy director of
Human Rights Watch, described solitary
confinement as “cruel and unusual punishment.”
“Solitary confinement has the obvious
effect of reducing social contacts
between offenders ... and can have lasting
psychological effects on human beings,”
according to Parker. “It should be a measure
of last resort.”
Unfortunately the DOC and many
other prison systems, use solitary confinement
as the preferred option for prisoners
who don’t kowtow to the system. In addition
to confining some incorrigibly violent
or vulnerable prisoners, it is often used
to discourage prisoner journalists and
jailhouse lawyers from exposing the evil
inherit in the American way of imprisonment.
PLN editor Paul Wright observed
that during his imprisonment he wound
up in many of Washington state’s IMUs
in retaliation for his writing and litigation.
“Built at great expense, Washington fills
its IMUs with prisoners accused of minor
offenses and the mentally ill,” Wright
Prison Legal News