Breaking a Fall
Spokane, Washington
When Tom Frantz started duty as a corrections officer (CO) at the Spokane County Corrections Center 14 years ago, he was prepared to deal with the usual dangers on the job. Like breaking up violent fights.
Catching falling inmates intent on killing themselves was not something he expected. But that's what happened one evening early this year. A 135-pound woman leaped off a mezzanine railing 20 feet above the floor.
Fortunately for her, Frantz was right there to break her fall — and save her life. Another inmate had died doing the same thing the year before.
"You got to do what you got to do," he told a reporter of The Spokesman-Review."And there wasn't a lot of time to do it. But when you put on the uniform you are expected to do things maybe a little above and beyond what the normal citizen would have to do."
Frantz was in a cubicle at the base of the mezzanine stairs when he saw the 22-year-old woman charge up the stairs and start to climb on the mezzanine railing. Recalling the earlier suicide incident, he rushed out to try to restrain her. But there was no time to climb the stairs. So Frantz calculated where she would land if she jumped, and moved to that spot. Within seconds, the woman plunged into the 39-year-old CO's outstretched arms.
The inmate was hospitalized overnight with a cracked pelvis. Frantz reported back to work the next day with a sore neck and shoulders.
Council 2 Pres. Chris Dugovich, who is also an International vice president, says Frantz's heroic act is an example of how a CO's line of work is becoming increasingly dangerous due to the kind of prisoners that are being held in the corrections center — such as more prisoners who have varying degrees of mental illness. This led to a labor/management agreement three years ago to adopt an extensive program designed to train COs and prison staff to recognize when inmates may be contemplating suicide. "This training program enables us to do our job better," Frantz says. "Without it, I might not have been as prepared to take the action I did."
