eastoregonian.com/front page/9-9-99
By MIKE FEDERMAN of the East Oregonian
PENDLETON - Prison corrections officer Sandy Ainsworth, who was beaten by a prison inmate last Friday, is recovering and was able to leave the hospital Wednesday.
A corrections officer at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution for more than 10 years, Ainsworth suffered head injuries and a broken ankle when she was attacked in the prison's east dining hall by inmate Leslie R. Jones, according to district attorney Chris Brauer.
She was admitted to St. Anthony Hospital Friday and went home Wednesday evening.
An Oregon State Police investigation into the incident determined Jones used a 15-inch metal pipe with a sharpened end in the attack.
Brauer, who received state police reports Wednesday, said he was anxious to charge Jones and would go before a grand jury "in all due haste."
Brauer said the charges he would present for grand jury consideration will include attempted aggravated murder, first-degree assault and unlawful possession of a deadly weapon by an inmate.
After reading the police investigation, Brauer said it appears that Jones "fashioned the sharp end on the piece of pipe."
The metal pipe came from the kitchen's scullery, where utensils are cleaned and stored, Brauer said.
Jones, 33, is serving a life sentence for murder, according to Kathy Jackson, executive assistant to the superintendent at EOCI. Jones was convicted in Marion County and had been an inmate at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario before being transferred to EOCI in April 1998.
Jackson said Jones has been placed in disciplinary segregation.
EOCI Superintendent Jean Hill said Ainsworth was the only guard on duty in the east dining hall at the time of the assault. The guard on duty in the west dining hall responded immediately to the incident, Hill said.
"The institution has been quiet," Hill said of the atmosphere at EOCI since the incident. "There are a lot of inmates who don't approve of this kind of thing."
Hill commended Ainsworth for her courage in the face of suffering significant pain.
A friend of Ainsworth, who asked that his and other family member's names not be printed for security reasons, said Ainsworth was able to leave her hospital bed briefly on Wednesday and move around with the help of a walker.
Ainsworth's daughter said her mother has received a lot of support from friends and family.
"The only thing she needs to be thinking about right now is getting well," she said, describing Ainsworth as a strong person who is dedicated to her job.
Connie Wright, Council 75 representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said Ainsworth is doing well physically, but noted that such an attack will require a long period of emotional healing as well.
Wright said the beating incident has prompted AFSCME and EOCI to establish a support group for victims and families to help with the healing process. Hill noted the state's employee assistance program also is available to Ainsworth.
"Hopefully we can learn from this so we can avoid something like this in the future," Wright said.
The last time an EOCI corrections officer was severely injured was in 1993 when Louis Michaels sustained injuries from an attack by then-inmate Bryant Woolstenhume.
Michaels was making a routine patrol of the exercise yard when he was beaten with a weight-lifting bar.
Woolstenhume was convicted of attempted aggravated murder and later hung himself with a bed sheet in his cell at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
Wright said because of that incident, AFSCME lobbied for a safer exercise-yard environment and now only stationary weight-lifting machines are used at EOCI.