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East Oregonian
Saturday, May 2, 2015
PRISON: Average daily capacity leveling off at 185-190
Continued from 1A
that they are being held for at
least 36 hours.”
The old catch and release
system drew plenty of
complaints from police who
did not like to see the guy
they just arrested walk free
before jail paperwork was
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offenders into the jail can
prove costly.
“We also have a full
medical department, a food
services department and
transportation
department
within one division,” he said.
“Anytime you raise the popu-
lation, you impact the rest of
the departments.”
More inmates means more
medical treatment, more
meals that meet federal nutri-
tion guidelines and moving
more inmates to and from
courthouses. While the jail
division has added two full
time equivalent employees
since 2014, Harp said there
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cers than several years ago.
The jail lost two graveyard
positions in the 2000s and
those have not been replaced.
The building itself presents
challenges, too. The lockup
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Umatilla County Jail holds on average 187 inmates a day, roughly 50 more than
it averaged just three years ago.
was built to hold 186 beds,
Harp said, but toward the
end of construction there was
enough money to bump the
beds to 252. But the facility
wasn’t built any bigger.
“Sometimes room is a little
hard to come by,” he said.
The Umatilla County Jail
is a central hub for trans-
porting inmates across West
Coast states. Each Wednesday
an extra 20 or 30 inmates
come for a day or two before
shipping out to other places.
Those spikes press the jail’s
capacity, as do big events such
as the Pendleton Round-Up.
Harp also said changes in
state law or local police policy
can affect the population size.
While the spikes will
continue, Harp said he sees
the average daily capacity is
leveling off in the 185-190
range, maybe 195.
“I don’t think we’re quite
there yet,” he said, “but we’re
closer than we’ve ever been.”
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0833.
LARSON: Was one of the youngest head nurses ever at the Mayo Clinic
Continued from 1A
in the ’60s. The cap, once
fastened into place with three
white bobby pins, had topped
off an all-white ensemble of
dress, hose and shoes.
“These were the days
of
glass
thermometers
with mercury,” said the
68-year-old. “There were no
IV pumps. You had to stand
and count the number of
drips.”
Ten drops made a milli-
liter, she said. Nurses did an
equation to determine how
much medication the patient
was getting. Technology
brought automation and such
things as simulation labs,
wireless patient monitoring,
robotics and electronic docu-
mentation.
Larson had decided at age
13 to go into nursing after
pondering the options.
“In those days, women
went into three professions,”
she said. “You were a teacher,
nurse or bookkeeper.”
Larson, whose faith is
extremely important to her,
said nursing felt like a calling.
The Minnesota native started
nursing school at age 18 and
had a bedside seat to watch
a dizzying array of changes
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started as a young nursing
student who hung out in the
ER of her teaching hospital,
Hennepin County General
in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
hoping to gain extra clinical
experience. The inner city
medical center saw just about
every type of injury or illness
walk through the door. She
remembers watching in fasci-
TEST: Parents are able
to opt their children out
nation as a doctor cracked
open a gunshot victim’s
chest and started massaging
the heart in his gloved hand
as the stricken man was
wheeled to the operating
room. Larson helped out
by squeezing plasma bags
to hurry the blood into the
victim’s system.
At 26 she was one of the
youngest head nurses ever
at the Mayo Clinic, over-
seeing 70 nurses in the open
heart intensive care units at
Mayo’s St. Mary’s Hospital
in Rochester.
In the early ’70s, Larson
helped with a trailblazing
trial that tested a computer
designed to monitor cardiac
patients after open heart
surgery. During the IBM/
Mayo Clinic study, Larson
oversaw two 12-bed units
— a computerized unit and
a non-computerized unit that
would serve as a control.
“Tubes went from the
patient’s heart to a cart
which was connected to a
computer,” she said.
The computer would
track blood pressure and
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discharge from the heart.
Urine would also be collected
and weighed. Vital signs
were taken every 20 seconds.
The computer monitor
was built into the wall.
“The server was gigantic
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support those 12 beds in the
ICU,” Larson said.
The
program
made
the nurses’ job easier and
quickened response time, but
proved expensive because
of the costly programmer
that was always on duty. The
technology, however, paved
the way to future advances.
Larson left Mayo after
10 years to move with her
husband Gary and three chil-
dren nearer family in Detroit
Lakes, Minnesota. Eventu-
ally, she studied health care
administration, earned a
master’s in business admin-
istration and completed a
bachelor’s degree in nursing.
She arrived at St. Anthony
Hospital 15 years ago as
Vice President of Patient
Care
Services.
Sharon
Berlie, nursing supervisor
and critical care manager at
the hospital, described her
Generously
Sponsored by:
boss as a supportive leader
who guided nurses in their
professional growth and
help de-stress them with her
bubbly personality and sense
of humor.
“She set the benchmark
high,” Berlie said. “She was
an inspiration.”
Retirement still seems
surreal to Larson.
“It hasn’t hit me yet,” she
said. “This kind of work is
H[KLODUDWLQJDQGIXO¿OOLQJ²
I’ll miss it.”
She said she would likely
wake up early on Monday
from habit. She and her
husband will soon move
to Bozeman, Montana, to
live near family. She pooh-
poohed the idea she might be
at loose ends.
“I’ve never been bored a
day in my life,” Larson said.
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———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
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evidence.
For example, a question
following a short article
could require a written
answer and two examples
from the text supporting the
student’s answer.
The whole test is admin-
istered digitally, allowing
for a wide variety of
question types.
Standard multiple choice
questions still abound, but
other questions include
drag-and-drop
graphics,
highlighting texts and graph
drawing.
Like the OAKS assess-
ment before it, Smarter
Balanced is “computer
adaptive,” meaning the test
gets progressively harder
or easier depending on how
many questions a student
answers correctly.
At
McKay
Creek
Elementary School, several
students echoed the praise
of their older peers.
Fifth grader Caleb Golter
said he’s more engaged with
the Smarter Balanced test,
so much so that he shared
the facts he learned from
an article on water conser-
vation with members of his
church and jiu-jitsu class.
Miltenberger said only
a handful of parents have
chosen to opt out of the
test, an option that’s gained
some traction in New York.
Suzanne Kennedy, a
former teacher and a mother
of three, opted out her
10-year-old child.
She not only has a
problem with the Smarter
Balanced test but with the
Common Core State Stan-
dards, the set of standards
for which the test was made
to align with.
Kennedy said she takes
issue with the fact that no
teachers were included in
the group that wrote the
Common Core standards,
the frequency in which the
test is administered and the
vulnerability of the students’
data, among other things.
In Kennedy’s view, the
Smarter Balanced test was
indicative of the continued
trend of evaluating students,
teachers and schools with
standardized tests.
“There’s no reading for
pleasure, there’s no reading
for the sake of reading,” she
said. “There’s just reading
for the test.”
When
opting
out,
Kennedy said parents are
given the option to either
bypass the test on grounds
of a religion or disability.
Parents also have to
offer an alternative project
or test that meets the state
standards.
Although there’s no end
in the immediate future for
Common Core or Smarter
Balanced, Kennedy said she
plans to continue opting out
her children.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
• How to manage medications safely and
effectively
• How to handle common challenging behaviors
Visit OregonCarePartners.com to get started
today. A little help can make a big difference –
for your loved one, and for you.
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Check out the PAWSABILITY Thrift Store
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clinics. Call for more
information.
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541-215-0447
to sponsor a pet
www.OregonCarePartners.com
1-800-930-6851 • info@oregoncarepartners.com