CLALLAM BAY — Inmates remained confined to their cells, although they were allowed some privileges such as phone calls today, as the Clallam Bay Corrections Center remained on lockdown for the fourth day after a corrections officer was stabbed.
“We are beginning to move off lockdown, but we are not off lockdown yet,” Department of Corrections spokeswoman Norah West said.
The prison went on lockdown Monday after an unidentified male corrections officer was stabbed in the face and neck with what prison officials described as a pointed object at 10 a.m.
The corrections officer was taken to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles after the attack and is recovering at home, according to the Department of Corrections.
The inmate alleged to have stabbed the officer, Carlos Avalos, 19, remained in the 850-inmate prison’s intensive management unit today, said Fay Gingell, corrections center spokeswoman.
West said corrections officers continue to work with the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office on the investigation.
“We are interviewing offenders; multiple offenders, it’s correct to say,” West said, though she declined to say the exact number.
“This is not out of the ordinary for an investigation to take this long.”
Avalos is serving a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to attacking a teacher with a homemade knife and hitting a security officer at a corrections vocational school in Chehalis in June 2012.
Gingell said the lockdown has meant some additional duties for corrections officer and facility staff, as offenders are not yet allowed to return to their jobs, such as custodial work.
“We’re doing whatever needs to be done,” Gingell said.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
