Guard Found Strangled at Washington State Prison

A female prison guard was strangled by an inmate at the Monroe Correctional Complex Saturday, January 29th. The Monroe Correctional Complex is Washington State's largest prison. It has about 2,500 inmates and 5 units of varying security levels. Jayme Biendl, 34, was found dead Saturday night in the chapel at the prison. She had been strangled with a microphone cord. Before she was murdered she had been raising concerns about being the only guard on duty in the chapel. An inmate by the name of Byron Scherf, age 52, is the primary suspect in the murder. Scherf was reported missing when a routine inmate count was done at about 9:15 pm and when Jayme Biendl didn't clock out at 10pm, when she was supposed to, staff members immediately went to the chapel and found her unresponsive on the floor. Scherf is serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of first-degree rape and kidnapping in 1997.


Ok, I can only sum up this story to a certain extent. I think that everyone who takes an interest in this article should click on the link and read the entire thing. There is a lot more to this story in the article. Anyway, I chose this article because I believe that this is a prime example that some things should be taken care of before it's to late. I understand that the "suspect" in question has been on good behavior for a long stretch and that he has a right to be rewarded for such good behavior, since he is going to be in there for life. I believe in throwing a dog a bone if he's been good enough to deserve it. I also believe in safety when it comes to being around murderers. Byron Scherf is an insane criminal. An article I found stated that Byron Scherf said that "he stakes out his intended victims, follows them and studies their habits."  That guard had been pushing to up the security in the chapel where she was the only guard on duty. It says at the bottom of the original article that it's a shame that the guard had to die before they decided to do something about the security situatuion in that area of the prison. I think that is exactly right. I mean, what were they thinking? That prison is Washington state's largest prison. They have inmates in there who require maximum security and they only put one guard on duty in the chapel?! That situation should not have been an issue. Why would they only have one guard on duty in the chapel area in a maximum security prison? Do they think that those murderers and criminals that are in there aren't going to do something like that because they are in a chapel under God's watchful eye? Those criminals don't give a crap about where they are when they do stuff like that!  The guy that strangled that lady was moved to a medium level of security from a high level of security because he had been showing good behavior. Let me just say that just because he was on good behavior doesn't forgive the reason why he is serving a life sentence. He was probably being good because a lot of time when an inmate shows good behavior, they get thrown a bone sometimes. Maybe they offered that guy something special if he were to show that he was on good behavior. I'm sure they took that deal away now since he murdered a guard. I'm sure they moved him back to a high level of security to. I also believe that they have probably upped the security in the chapel now. But at what cost? That lady had to die just for all those safety issues to be solved? I think that people need to realize and take it seriously that those inmates are in there for a reason and that reason wasn't for something minor. People need to take situations like these very seriously and should always use the highest level of safety so that things like this woman's death doesn't happen again.