A8 THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021
COVID-19 in Oregon
Hundreds fall ill, 2 die amid surge at prison
BY BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
UMATILLA — Brandon
Baker was already feeling
symptoms when officials at
Two Rivers Correctional Insti-
tution carried out a sick inmate
from two cells down.
Another inmate, four cells
away, said he saw the same in-
mate lying on his bed ill for
nearly two weeks, receiving lit-
tle care.
“He looked like death,” the
inmate, who asked for ano-
nymity out of fear of retalia-
tion, said. “I walked by and
told him, ‘Get better bro’ and
he didn’t even move. Like, co-
matose on his bed.”
The sick inmate, who was
between 50 and 60 years old
and was serving his sentence
at TRCI, reportedly died Jan.
2, after testing positive for
COVID-19, according to a
press release that did not iden-
tify him by name. He’s one of
two inmates who have recently
died as the institution endures
the largest surge in COVID-19
cases among prisons in Ore-
gon, with 235 active cases as of
Wednesday, according to data
from the Oregon Department
of Corrections.
“They aren’t actually doing
anything,” Baker, who said he
tested positive for COVID-19
around the first of the year,
said of prison staff. “Right now,
somebody could be in their cell
dying and they wouldn’t know
anything about it because
they’re locked in their cell, not
being monitored, not being
anything. They’re just locked in
their cell.”
Baker is one of 393 inmates
at TRCI who have reportedly
tested positive for COVID-19
since Dec. 10, according to
data from the department of
corrections. Since the begin-
ning of December, 50 TRCI
staff have also tested positive.
Interviews with four in-
mates, eight people with loved
ones in the prison, and two
attorneys with more than 20
clients at TRCI, illuminate
the conditions adults in cus-
tody are facing as the prison is
rocked by the case spike. They
described to the East Orego-
nian inconsistent mask wear-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Two Rivers Correctional Institution is bathed in the afternoon sun.
ing among prison staff, failures
to both maintain social dis-
tancing and to separate quar-
antined and non-quarantined
inmates, meager and expired
food supplies, and an environ-
ment that has put inmates and
prison staff at risk of infec-
tion since a power outage left
the east side of the institution
largely in the dark on Dec. 16.
The power was restored on
Dec. 24, according to officials.
But since then, infection has
surged rapidly, with 281 addi-
tional inmates and 40 staff re-
portedly testing positive.
“Just because they’re an in-
mate doesn’t mean they don’t
have people out there who love
them,” said Erika Sjolander,
whose husband, an inmate at
TRCI, was rushed to the hos-
pital on Thursday, four days
after testing positive in the
outbreak.
Sjolander’s husband, who
she said was to be released
from the prison in 27 days, has
asthma, diabetes and has gone
through chemotherapy for
cancer. She’s worried he won’t
make it.
“He called me (on Wednes-
day), and he could barely talk.”
she said, crying. “And he says,
‘Tell my kids I love them. I
might not make it home.’ And
hearing that is breaking my
heart.”
Baker and the anonymous
inmate each said that since the
virus began to spread through
the prison in mid-December,
infecting hundreds and forc-
ing their unit into quarantine,
prison staff had only con-
ducted brief daily checks for
temperature and symptoms.
Maria Stenkamp
Crawford
Vosburg
04/29/1928 - 11/17/2019
Maria was born in Bend, Oregon on April 29, 1928 to
Henry J. and Huber} ne E. Stenkamp. She grew up on
Stenkamp Road and at ended Rock School and Bend
High School.
Maria married Wallace Crawford in 1946 and
divorced in 1978. Maria and Wallace operated a
dairy farm east of Bend for many years. Maria was
the chief milker of the herd of cows and she always
said it was a good life but a lot of work. Maria always
grew a large garden and shared the bounty of fruits
and vegetables to all the neighbors. She was kind
and a friend to all that knew her.
In 1986 Maria married Milford Vosburg and they
resided in Prineville, Oregon. Maria con} nued
to reside in Prineville un} l 2016 at which } me
she moved to Milwaukie to be in the care of her
daughter, Sandra.
Maria is survived by her children, Dale Crawford (Liz)
and Sandra Crawford Senger. Grandchildren, Jason
Smith, (Melody), Jennifer Smith, Ellen Crawford and
Courtney Crawford.
Maria was preceded in death by her son, George W.
Crawford (Vicky), her parents, brothers, Henry and
Hubert and sister, Huber} ne Stenkamp.
A special thank you to Maria9s caregivers, Kristal
Bird, Melody Souther and Dona Reid. And, thank you
to Bristol Hospice, especially Tanéy and Abner.
A gathering of friends and family will be held at a
later date.
They are released from their
cells once a day for a brief
phone call, which Troy Marin,
an inmate, said is due to the
shortage of staff caused by the
outbreak.
In an email to the East Or-
egonian newsroom, officials
from the department of cor-
rections did not respond to
multiple questions regarding
the source’s allegations of min-
imal medical care, but said,
“DOC employees are making
decisions based on medical
and operational expertise,” and
added staff are limited by “in-
stitution design” and the num-
ber of hospital beds available
for COVID-19 patients across
the state.
Officials said inmates who
require medical attention be-
yond what is available at the
prison are transferred to hos-
pitals
Statewide surge
The surge at TRCI comes
as the state’s prison system
endures a significant spike in
cases, with 545 active cases
among adults in custody as of
Wednesday, according to DOC
data. Only three of the state’s
15 prisons do not have current
active cases.
In all, 2,690 adults in cus-
tody and 679 staff have report-
edly tested positive in Oregon,
and 26 inmates who contracted
COVID-19 have died, accord-
ing to the DOC.
“It seems like the (depart-
ment of corrections) is just
really reactive,” Tara Herivel,
a Portland-based attorney
with more than 20 clients at
TRCI, said. “They wait until
the problem has taken over, no
matter how predictable it is or
not. Then when pressures are
hard enough, they take action,
whether adequate or not. They
wait in a reactive kind of posi-
tion, and it is just fatal in these
circumstances.”
Some inmates at TRCI
say they believe infection is
stemming from prison work-
places, like the laundry unit
or kitchen, where they say in-
mates from quarantined units
are mixing with those who ar-
en’t quarantined.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like
my job, I like working,” said
Troy Marin, an inmate at TRCI
who works in the laundry unit.
“But I don’t want my life being
in jeopardy either.”
Inmates say that if they re-
fuse to go to work, they will
face retaliation by being placed
in “the hole” — a segregated
unit where inmates are sent
when they misbehave.
Officials from the DOC said,
“It is impossible to definitively
say what may have caused or
exacerbated the outbreak at
TRCI.” They said that health
and safety measures like sani-
tization, mask wearing and so-
cial distancing are taking place
to their “best ability.”
When it began
On Dec. 10, after two prison
staff tested positive a week be-
fore, corrections staff transferred
10 COVID-19-positive inmates
from Deer Ridge Correctional
Institution in Madras to the
medical isolation unit at Two
Rivers, as first reported by Ore-
gon Public Broadcasting. At the
time of the transfer, Deer Ridge
had more than 130 adults in
custody with active cases.
Between Dec. 10 and Dec.
Norma Jean (Chasse Donovan) Horak
age 74, died November
16, 2020, at Ojai Valley
Community Hospital
following a stroke
complicating chronic
ARVD cardiomyopathy.
Norma was born
March 13, 1946 in
Greenfield, MA. She
grew up in nearby
Hawley in a large
family on a potato
farm in the Berkshire
Mountains. She was a life-long lover of animals,
especially horses which she raised and trained. She
was an accomplished horse rider and instructor. She
had special expertise with gaited horses, particularly
Missouri Fox Trotters. Both children and animals were
drawn to her. She was an avid seamstress and an
award-winning quilter. She loved gardening and loved
to plant and grow flowers, especially daff odils. She
enjoyed travel and adventure.
She was a registered nurse, earning her nursing
degree from Greenfield Community College. She
worked in many hospitals including the North Adams
and Greenfield hospitals in Massachusetts, and Valley
Regional Hospital in Claremont, New Hampshire. She
worked in the Emergency Department at St. Thomas
More Hospital in Canon City, Colorado, as well as in a
small family medicine clinic in Moff at, Colorado in the
San Luis Valley.
She was preceded in death by her parents Rilda
and Roland Chasse and her brother Roger Chasse.
She is survived by her husband of 25 years, James
Hank Horak, her son Patrick and daughter Amy, her
sisters Donna, Serra, and Paula, her brothers Maurice
and Richard, as well as numerous cousins, nieces,
and nephews. She had many friends in the horse
community of Central Oregon where she lived prior to
moving to Ojai, California this last summer. She was
beloved and will be terribly missed.
Memorial gatherings will be held in the coming year
after the Covid pandemic has subsided, in the many
places Norma loved and was loved, including Oregon,
Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
18, 47 additional inmates and
six staff at TRCI tested positive.
Herivel said there are de-
partment of corrections pol-
icies against transferring in-
mates in and out of Tier-4
prisons — the highest level of
quarantine based on cases at an
individual prison. She said she
believes the transfers are done
when prisons run out of space
for medical treatment and the
institution is overcome by the
spread of disease, “and this
appears to have happened at
TRCI,” she said.
“If you transfer people from
a Tier-4 prison to another
prison, and those people hav-
en’t been tested but it turns out
they’re positive, you are open-
ing up a whole bunch of people
to pain, suffering and possibly
death,” Herivel said.
Officials said in the email
that they were following trans-
fer protocol.
On Dec. 16, a power outage
caused by two wires shorting
and exploding in a conduit
underground after 20 years of
degradation left an area where
more than 600 inmates reside
in the pitch black, according to
officials and sources. Several
days later, inmates were pro-
vided small, battery-powered
lights to illuminate their cells,
just as infection was ramping
up in the prison.
For more than a week, in-
mates were released from their
cells for about an hour a day
to use the phone and shower.
Aside from that — darkness.
“It’s weird, because you
lose your sense of what’s go-
ing on,” said Frank Roof, an
inmate, who added he con-
sidered causing trouble and
getting himself put into “the
hole” just to be in a cell with
light. “You can’t read or you
can’t do anything. You’re just
laying there. Our cells aren’t
big enough for two people to
get up and move around at
the same time.”
CARL ANTHONY BAILEY, a retired
Marine Gunnery Sergeant and 20-year
resident of Yuma, AZ, died December 26,
2020 at the age of 81 at the Yuma Regional
Medical Center in Yuma Arizona. Carl is
survived by his wife of 64 years, Betty and
his children Kathleen Bailey, Carl Bailey, Jr.
(Carrie), Karen Nelson (Lloyd) and Laura
Slater (Danny), 9 grandchildren and 14
great-grandchildren.
Carl was born in San Diego, CA on August
1, 1939 to Charles A. Bailey and Gertrude
H. Leibundgut. He attended schools in
Yuba City CA, Winnemucca NV and Reno
NV. He earned two degrees simultaneously
from Central Oregon Community College
in Bend, OR., where he also taught in the
Automotive Department for four years.
Carl joined the Marine Corps in 1956. He
was a proud 20-year Marine, fi rst stationed
in Japan from 1957 through 1958 then
proudly served two tours in Vietnam, fi rst
during 1966 through 1968 and again in
1972. During this time, he earned Rifl e
Expert, Pistol Expert, Commendation and
Achievement Medals, was a member of
The Flying Tigers, Death Rattlers, USMC
Aviation, Marine Aircraft Group, Armed
Forces Expeditionary Service, Vietnam Pop
A Smoke and Veterans of Underage Military
Service among others.
Carl and his family lived in many different
cities during his time serving his country.
Upon retiring from the USMC Carl and
family resided for many years in Bend, OR.
Carl worked in the automotive industry after
retiring from the USMC. He owned an auto
repair shop and was a master mechanic. He
also owned and operated both a car sales
and automotive transport business. Carl
completely retired in 2001 at which time he
and his wife Betty traveled for many years in
their motorhome, visiting almost every state
within the U.S. fi nally relocating to Yuma,
Arizona.
Carl enjoyed many hobbies, his chief hobby
being an avid gun enthusiast. He belonged
to the High Power Rifl e and Pistol Club of
Yuma where he shot 400, 600 and 1,000
yards. He taught a Women’s Self Defense
class in Yuma, AZ and Hunter Safety
courses for children in Bend, OR.
He has left behind many friends and valued
each and every one.
Services for Carl will be held in Fernley, NV
at a date to be determined and he will be
interred at the Veterans Cemetery in Fernley,
NV. A Celebration of Life for Carl will also be
held in Yuma, AZ, depending on safety and
restrictions, at a date to be determined.
In lieu of fl owers please make a donation
in Carl’s name to St. Jude’s or the Christian
Children’s Fund or any other charity for
children of your choice. He loved the little
children.
Our Glorious Hero in the Land of the
Free and the Home of the Brave, you
can rest peacefully now, your tour is over.
Semper Fi Marine.