State pays $4M to former inmate beaten by cellmate

The state prison system has paid $4 million to a former inmate who was beaten into a coma by a cellmate with a long history of violence and mental illness.

The settlement, announced late Wednesday by the Department of Corrections (DOC), will help pay for lifetime medical care for Ryan Alwine, who remains severely disabled because of the assault.

"Our deepest sympathies go out to Ryan for the pain and suffering he has endured," DOC Secretary Eldon Vail said in a statement. "This settlement will enable him to continue receiving the medical and rehabilitative care he needs for his lifetime following this senseless, violent act."

The settlement is unusually high for an incident of inmate-on-inmate violence. As a result of an internal review of the case, the DOC had improved inmate-screening methods to spot inmates with serious mental-health problems.

Belinda Stewart, a spokeswoman for DOC, said Washington Correctional Center at Shelton now has more access to mental-health providers, and hired a "behavioral alert specialist" to help decide which inmates should be placed together.

Alwine's mother, Gwen Harris of Longview, said her son has a traumatic brain injury and is trying to relearn how to walk. "He's 26 years old and he doesn't have anything to look forward to," she said. "He'll never get married, he'll never have a child, he'll never live by himself."

The assault occurred at the Shelton facility after 1 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2006. The day before, Eddie L. Hopkins, an inmate with an extensive history of violence and mental illness, was placed in the same cell with Alwine, who was serving a 20-month sentence for a firearms violation.

According to court documents, Hopkins has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, which can cause hallucinations, and has a history of "severe drug addiction." He has at least 18 felony convictions since 1993, and was transferred to Western State Hospital in October after being charged with second-degree murder in Mason County.

Harris said Hopkins had just arrived from another jail before the beating and had been flagged as having serious mental illness. Normally, such inmates are isolated to protect themselves and other inmates, but Hopkins was placed in the prison's general-receiving unit.

Hopkins started the assault by kicking Alwine in the head, then proceeded to stomp on his head for more than 25 minutes, Harris said.

Corrections officers were aware of the beating, but they did not intervene, Harris said. Alwine was in a coma for five months after the assault. He has no short-term memory and cannot use one hand, Harris said.

Seattle Times news researcher David Turim contributed

to this report.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com