SUMMIT — Employees of the Federal Correctional Institution paid tribute to their fallen comrades on Monday.
The prison had its annual memorial service for federal Bureau of Prisons workers who have been killed in the line of duty. The ceremony kicked off the prison’s week-long observance of National Correctional Workers’ Week.
A total of 24 employees have lost their lives in federal prisons, with the first casualty occurring in 1901 in Leavenworth, Kan.
Monday’s ceremony was highlighted by a roll call of the fallen workers and the laying of a remembrance rose in each of their names.
The program also featured a special tribute to the most recent BOP worker to die in the line of duty, Jose Rivera, a correctional officer at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif. Rivera, 22, a U.S. Navy veteran who served two tours of duty in Iraq, died on June 22 after he was attacked by two inmates he was returning to their cells. One of the inmates stabbed Rivera with a prison-made knife. Both inmates have been indicted for his murder.
FCI-Ashland has never had a worker killed in the line of duty, either at its medium-security prison or its satellite camp. However, Warden Kenny Cauley, a 30-year corrections veteran, said he knew first-hand what it was like to go to work in a prison following the death of an employee.
Cauley said one’s feelings in such a situation run the gamut from sorrow to anger to guilt.
“You constantly ask yourself, ‘Is there something I could have done?’” he said. “As corrections professionals, we realize there is no rhyme or reason as to why these things happen. We chose this profession to serve and protect, and that is what gives us the courage to go forward.”
Cauley said during his first year at FCI-Ashland, he had witnessed numerous incidents that were testaments to the prison staff’s “commitment to human life.” One, he said, was the manner in which “everyone came together as a family” following the death of FCI employee Denise Leadingham and her husband, Ashland Police Sgt. Chuck Leadingham, in a motorcycle accident last year.
Monday’s ceremony also featured the prison’s annual employee awards presentation. Winners were Charles Bledsoe and Tim Nicely, correctional officers of the year; Cindy Hinton, instructor of the year; Mark Caudill, senior officer specialist of the year; Angela Ramey, correctional worker of the year; Joe Bainer and Chris Shelton, supervisors of the year; and Joe Coldiron, EEO/Affirmative Action Committee employee of the year.
KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.
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