/ Green River Killer

11:28 AM PST on Thursday, January 8, 2004

Associated Press

SEATTLE - Green River Killer Gary Ridgway has been moved to the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, bypassing the normal intake process, which would have first required him to be taken to the state corrections center in Shelton.

"We decided for security issues that we would move him directly over to the penitentiary," said Jim Thatcher, classification chief for the state Department of Corrections.

Ridgway was sentenced last month to 48 consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.

AP Gary Ridgway

On Monday, Ridgway boarded a bus to Walla Walla. Typically, the first stop for a new inmate is the Corrections Department's Reception Center at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton.

Over the next few weeks, corrections officials will gather information on Ridgway and even interview him as they determine whether to classify him as a minimum-, medium-, close- or maximum-security offender.

Most believe Ridgway's notoriety and criminal history will require that he be housed as a close-security inmate under visual supervision at all times.

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Although Ridgway will remain at Walla Walla for at least the next month or so, Thatcher said he won't be officially placed until the assessment is over.

He is not mixed in with the general inmate population and likely won't be even after he is classified, at least not at first. More likely, he will join about 125 state inmates who are in protective custody.

These inmates, including former law enforcement officers, high-profile sex offenders and inmates who have testified against other inmates, are kept separate from the general prison population.