Line of duty deaths--behind the badge

Randy Schulz, WCA vice-chairman

I learned a great deal from a presentation by Randy Schulz, from Prison Fellowship and Washington Chaplains Association (WCA) vice-chairman, on line of duty deaths (LODD) at the April 12 semi-annual meeting at the Hal Holmes Center in Ellensburg. It was also very stretching and emotional.

I serve as the co-secretary of the WCA, a group for jail and prison chaplains, along with Bob Jordan, the secretary for eight years.  Bob, pictured below with Joenne McGerr, is also the board chairman with Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries. 

"Just as life in the United States life was forever changed after 9-11, so the Washington State DOC will never be the same following the murder of Jayme Biendl. This is our 9-11 and things will never be the same" Randy said.

Behind the Badge Foundation 

Randy is Field Director for Prison Fellowship for Washington State. He served as a volunteer with Behind the Badge Foundation’s (BtBF) LODD Response Team as Volunteer Coordinator for the Memorial Service honoring Jayme Biendl. 

Randy’s wife, Gayle Frink-Schulz, is a long-time member of  BtBF’s LODD Response Team and is the organization’s Program Director. The memorial in Monroe and Everett welcomed officers from as far away as New York. This was the first Department of Corrections (DOC) officer death at a corrections center facility for 31 years. 

As I was listening and taking notes for this LODD presentation, I kept recalling how close we came to an officer death at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent right around the same time Officer Biendl was killed.  I recounted those events in our closed custody NE unit and wondered how I would have reacted and what the dynamics would have looked like at the RJC.

The BtBF LODD team follows an Incident Command Structure. Officer Biendl’s memorial planning team was comprised of 60 or more people. Among them were WA State DOC staff, police officers from other agencies, honor guards, chaplains, CISM volunteers and support staff from numerous entities coordinated to prepare and facilitate the memorial.  

Two MCC Corrections Officers were selected to be family liaison officers. There are incredible waves or ripples starting with the family, friends and co-workers, MCC inmates, and their families and MCC volunteers. 

This impact radiates out to WA State DOC staff state-wide and the Governor’s Office, to the community of Monroe. Departments of Correction across the country, law enforcement agencies across the State are also impacted.

A WCA group of 37 watched a three-minute presentation on the memorial honoring Officer Jayme Biendl who was killed on duty October 29, 2011 after a religious service at the reformatory unit in Monroe Corrections Center.

WCA at Holmes Center

In the days following the death, Chaplain Imo Smith mentioned walk around services in the tiers provided care throughout the Monroe complex. Each facility around the state maintains differing procedures based on custody levels ad other factors.

                                             Trauma brings out stress

Trauma accentuates vulnerabilities already present among officers. Their families may have difficulty coming to terms with the shocking display of how badly things can go wrong resulting in questioning their loved one’s occupation. A tension rooted in differences in the way they view their environment may develop between custody and non-custody staff. 

The physical presence of the crime scene in the center of the Reformatory grounds makes it impossible to get any distance from it. This keeps the trauma in the faces of WSRU staff and inmates.

Shannon O’Donnell, a Roman Catholic pastoral care minister from the King County Jail in Seattle, mentioned the additional stress experienced by families of other inmates. 

Bob Jordan and Joenne McGerr

Joenne McGerr, DOC programs, noted children asked heartbreaking questions in counseling sessions about why the officers were not kept safe.

Many volunteers were locked out of the attending facility although DOC promptly provided information on a timely basis. 

        Revised decisions and policies 
Major DOC policy changes are being implemented around the state facilities.  Some react to these changes with another layer of stress.

Volunteers are in prisons by the permission of the facilities where each serves. Regardless of how necessary or helpful the services provided by volunteers are, the volunteers do not share the responsibility for outcomes. Only those who share the responsibility can truly be partners. 

Volunteers are encouraged to adjust, adapt, smile and keep on serving in the role the given each of us. The responses of the volunteers in the aftermath of this tragedy will determine whether they are welcome guests or not.