Downs Moved To Prison In State

Convicted child killer Elizabeth Diane Downs was transferred yesterday from the Oregon Women's Correctional Center in Salem to Washington's prison for women at Purdy in Pierce County.

Downs, 35, arrived about 9 a.m. at the Washington Corrections Center for Women, according to the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Oregon prisons spokesman Robey Eldridge said Downs was transferred to the prison at Gig Harbor because she escaped from the Oregon women's prison for 10 days in 1987 and had made two escape attempts from a New Jersey prison.

"She is viewed to be a continuing security threat," he said.

Eldridge said the Washington state prison has a maximum-security unit that's more secure than anything at the Oregon women's prison.

Downs was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years for the 1983 shootings that left one of her children dead and two wounded. The shootings occurred on a rural road outside of Springfield, Ore.

"When she escaped from the Oregon state penitentiary she was in the general population with significant freedom of movement within the grounds," said Eldon Vail, superintendent of the prison at Purdy. "When she is here in Washington, she will be housed in segregation. She will spend 23 out of 24 hours in the cell, and when she is out of her cell she will be restrained."

The Washington State Department of Corrections exchanged Downs for another Purdy prisoner as part of an interstate agreement, Vail said. Downs will remain at Purdy indefinitely, Vail said.

Downs was sent to the New Jersey prison after her 1987 escape.

However, she has been back in Oregon since June, when she took part in a proceeding in Marion County Circuit Court to determine whether she should have a new murder trial.

Eldridge said New Jersey prison officials had been willing to take Downs back after the hearing, even though she'd made two escape attempts while in that state's custody.

However, Oregon corrections officials decided it would be more efficient to send Downs to a neighboring state while her request for a new trial is pending, Eldridge said.

"The judge hasn't rendered a decision," he said. "To transfer her all the way across the country while that decision is pending wouldn't make good economic sense."

Yesterday's transfer of Downs marked the second time in as many days that one of Oregon's most notorious criminals has been shipped out of state.

Convicted murderer Frank Gable was sent to an Idaho prison Thursday to protect him from being harmed by other inmates at the Oregon State Penitentiary, the corrections agency said.

Gable was sentenced to life in prison in June for the 1989 stabbing death of Oregon Corrections chief Michael Francke.