eastoregonian.com/front page/9-28-99
By MIKE FEDERMAN of the East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Two employees at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution received statewide recognition Monday during the Department of Corrections annual awards ceremony here.
Held at the Pendleton Convention Center, this was the first time the awards ceremony was held in Eastern Oregon.
John Schell was named Correctional Officer of the Year, and Rick Rose was named Manager of the Year.
Schell and Rose were selected locally and their names were forwarded to a state selection committee, which made the final decision.
“We have over 3,200 employees who work very hard every day,” said Scott Taylor, DOC assistant director of community corrections. “It’s important to take one day of the year, for two hours, and stop to salute and recognize these people.”
Rose started working at EOCI in 1986 as a prison steward with food services. Currently, he is food services manager and also has taken on the duties of physical plant manager.
As director of EOCI’s cafeteria, Rose serves more than 4,500 meals a day, including therapeutic and kosher meals.
He has developed and implemented more than 100 inmate jobs in food services to support Measure 17 compliance, which requires that inmates work a 40-hour week.
During the awards presentation, EOCI superintendent Jean Hill complimented Rose as a manager who is held in high esteem by his peers, staff and inmates.
Schell was hired as an EOCI corrections officer in 1991. Currently, he holds the rank of sergeant.
Schell is also a first-aid/cardio pulmonary resuscitation in-service trainer and regularly volunteers for work-related service programs.
In 1997, he received special recognition from the Emergency Exercise Evaluators for his outstanding performance in the institution’s control center during an emergency exercise.
In addition, a group of Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution employees won lifesaving awards during Monday’s ceremony:
•In October 1998, while escorting visitors at the prison, corrections officer Kenneth Hogeland saved a small child from being crushed by an automatically closing door. Hogeland responded to the situation after the child had bolted from his mother.
•In November 1998, Capt. Don Riggin, Lt. Randy Patterson, Sgt. Gary Myers, Officer Bryan Branstetter, Officer Robert Holden, Officer Gregory Ross and COPE program manager Claudia Fischer-Rodriquez worked as a team to rescue an emotionally distraught EOCI inmate who had climbed to the fourth floor of one of the facility’s housing units and threatened to jump. After climbing over the guard rail and swinging back and forth above the prison grounds, staff members persuaded the inmate to climb back safely to the landing.
•In December 1998, Officer Travis Tackett prevented an inmate from hanging himself with a pair of prison coveralls.
•In January 1999, Cpl. Michael Seefeldt applied the Heimlich maneuver to stop an inmate from choking on a piece of food in the cafeteria.
• In May 1999, officers Charles Davis, Carlton Pease, Eric Carlos and Gregory Ross worked as a team to rescue an inmate who attempted to strangle himself with a bed sheet.