Now, some here might complain that the title of this diary is hyperbolic, or that it misses the mark. Too bad. Grover Norquist, the guy who 30 years ago began his "shrink government to the point that we can drown it in a bathtub" movement (a movement that has grown to have completely infected every aspect of American civic life), already has blood on his hands, aplenty.
The incident I will share below the fold is just another instance of the metastasis of his toxic philosophy in our once great country (and since "only" one death occurred, it's certainly not the most horrific nor the most catastrophic), but it is telling.
And sickening.
It happened, this time, in Washington State, at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Western WA. Here are the basics of the story:
The body of corrections officer Jayme Biendl was found in the chapel at the state correctional facility in Monroe on Saturday.
Byron Scherf, the man suspected of killing her, has a history of violence against women and was serving a life sentence for his crimes when he allegedly strangled Biendl.
"So what?" you might say, "corrections work is dangerous, right?" Well, it certainly is, but let's go a little deeper into this story.
First, you need to know that Monroe is a medium security prison. Hmmm. How did the "suspect" - I put the word in quotes because at the time of the murder there was a lockdown due to a headcount discrepancy, and this guy was the only missing prisoner - how did the "suspect" get to do his life sentence for three violent convictions (he was a three-strike offender) in a medium security facility? Well the WA director of corrections, in that same article linked above, gives us the answer:
"Our goal would always be to house a person in the lowest level of custody that we can get them to safely because that's what saves taxpayers the most money," Department of Corrections Secretary Eldon Vail said.
A lifer with a violent, recidivist history against women gets his status upgraded to a medium security inmate because the WA government can't afford to keep him in a more secure facility, and therefore decides to describe this monster as "safe enough" for lighter prison duty. No reading between the lines on this one, folks, it's all out there in the open.
But there's an even more eggregious aspect to this story that doesn't appear in this news item. You'll find it here:
Byron Scherf, a 52-year-old inmate, was reported missing during a routine count at 9:14 p.m. Saturday. He was found three minutes later in the chapel lobby and told officers he had planned to escape.
{snip}
Prison officials said Scherf had been serving as a volunteer worker in the chapel.
Lewis said Biendl was alone at the chapel Saturday night and was not carrying a weapon, as is typical for many corrections officers.
She was ending her shift at 10 p.m. but had not reported back or turned in her equipment, which sparked concerns. Staff members immediately went to the chapel and found her unresponsive.
Emergency responders were called and Biendl was declared dead at 10:49 p.m. She was fully clothed and there was no evidence of a sexual assault, Willis said.
Biendl joined the Corrections Department in 2002. Teamsters 117 spokeswoman Tracey Thompson said Sunday that the officer had complained to her union shop steward and prison supervisors about being the sole guard working in the chapel. She worried about being there alone without anyone checking on her, Thompson said.
Recent budget cuts have forced staffing reductions and union members have been worried about the impact of those reductions on safety, Thompson said.
Yes, the WA Corrections Dept, like its sister Departments all across the country, has cut back on staffing to the point that Ms Biendl (a mother of two, btw) was forced to stand her post in the prison chapel, with a "volunteer" who had a violent, recidivist history against women, unarmed and by herself.
Not only that, they didn't even have the staffing, apparently, to check up on her after having discovered the rapist/kidnapper Scherf right outside her post in the chapel at 9:14, probably because they were tied up processing Scherf into solitary confinement, just glad that he hadn't "escaped," which would have put even more stress on their workload. Yes, you can call it bad policing if you like, that they didn't poke their heads into the chapel, but when you're doing the work of 1.5 officers (or whatever the cuts demand) shit like that slips through the cracks, doesn't it.
Bottom line: if they'd had a full complement of guards on duty, Ms Biendl would most likely still be alive because she would have had a partner in the chapel with her, and even if Scherf had been able to get her alone to attack her, it would have been much more likely that another guard could have found her in time to save her, right after Scherf was found, instead of 45+ minutes later.
So Grover, by proxy, kills again, and these won't be his last victims (Ms Biendl and her family, that is). But he shares his guilt for all these "drowning government" atrocities (and those to come) with many other like minded, well-heeled "patriots" who put tax cuts ahead of public safety, all the while proclaiming their allegiance to the Constitution. What a laugh:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
A final note This is personal for me: my grandson is a guard at that facility.