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| 600-Pound Woman May Win Life, In Prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/10/2001 |
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Every day, two inmates enter Edna Lue Mitchell's room at the Oregon Women's Correctional Center and help the woman walk a lap around her bed. That's all the exercise Mitchell can handle. Mitchell, who weighs 648 pounds with her lightweight wheelchair, entered the prison a month ago to begin a 25-month sentence for stealing from her employer. The Oregon Department of Corrections customized her bed, prison clothes and diet - a diet that might help Mitchell take a step out of another prison, the body she lives in. Mitchell said she put on 150 pounds over the past two years, when she was bedridden. She suffers from congestive heart failure and takes pills to make her lose some of her water weight. She worked for Buff Auto Center, a dealership in Newberg where she was a title clerk and handled the dealership's extended warranties. Her boss, Sherry Buff, said Mitchell pretended to cancel service contracts on behalf of vehicle owners but kept the money instead of paying anyone a refund. Mitchell pleaded guilty last summer to two counts of aggravated theft and two counts of identity theft. The defense considered seeking home detention because Mitchell was neither a flight risk nor a danger to society. As the department converts the women's prison in Salem to an intake center, Mitchell and the rest of the inmates there will be driven up Interstate 5 to Wilsonville's Coffee Creek Correctional Institution. She'll take her customized bed with her but will be expected to participate in work and inmate programs like everyone else. 'We would work with her to improve her health as much as possible,' said Norma Land, a spokeswoman for the Coffee Creek institution. So far the prison diet is working. Mitchell said she had shed 11 inches from her waist. |
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