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closeChapel Hill volunteers thank WCCW correctional officers with barbecue
Hugh McMillan
Special to the Gateway
It’s difficult to imagine the dangerous environment in which to work at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy.
Many inmates are productively involved in the Prison Pet Partnership Program, a horticultural training program, rehabilitation of bicycles for the Gig Harbor Kiwanis Club or a plethora of other productive disciplines.
The corrections officers, though, often go unnoticed.
That is, until volunteers from Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor held a barbecue in their honor last month.
Many church members are familiar with the operation of the prison as they conduct ministerial and other programs to benefit the inmates and staff. By doing so, they see a side of the operation not known to the public.
Barb Wentlandt, assistant to Chapel Hill pastors, said the church provides many services, including Mom and Kids play day, the Clothes Closet, which outfits each inmate before she leaves WCCW, and Rebuilding Families, a mentor program where volunteers work one-on-one with inmates before they are released.
Chapel Hill church members Bill Barbee, Shirley Barbee and Bill Higbay were joined by security officer Sgt. Ed Schulz and fellow Sgt. Jeff Herrmann near the facility’s entrance, barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs.
Other fixings were assembled by church members Pat Higbay and Lorie Waggett. Additional church volunteers were Diana Hilton, and Bob and Anne DeLaney.
During the informal meeting, an officer announced a fellow officer had been released from a hospital and was recovering following a serious injury that required several stitches. The inmate who slashed the female officer’s throat with a food tray wasn’t targeting them in particular. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the officer said.
A flier, The Forgotten Cop, written by an unknown author, summed up the job:
“What would the average citizen say if it were proposed that police officers be assigned to a neighborhood which was inhabited by no one but criminals and those officers would be unarmed, patrol on foot and be heavily outnumbered? The overwhelming public response would be that the officers would have to be crazy to accept such an assignment. Such a scenario is being played out in all sections of the country.”