NEWS

October 8, 2007
Penitentiary's voice will retire after 28 years

It was lunchtime at the Iowa State Penitentiary, and as Ron Welder, the prison spokesman, ate roast beef and mashed potatoes, he gestured to an area a few feet away in the dining hall.

On that spot in 1992, convict Edward Deases killed a fellow prisoner, Joseph Perea, with a handcrafted knife, known as a "shank," as inmates lined up for breakfast.

"He had him on the floor, and he stabbed him so hard that it went through the breastbone, through the heart, and through the spine, and it bent on the floor," Welder recalled.

The 57-year-old Welder, the chief spokesman at Iowa's toughest prison, recalled the dining-hall slaying as one grim chapter in a series of news events during his 28 years as the penitentiary's representative with local, state and national media.

The Madrid native is retiring Oct. 18. He is ending a career in which he has provided reporters with details on cell house disturbances, inmate murders, hostage incidents, assaults on correctional officers, a full-blown riot in 1981, and the daring escape of two dangerous convicts over a 30-foot wall in 2005.

Whenever trouble developed at "The Fort," Welder's phone began ringing.

"When something happens at the prison, everybody jumps on it," said J.K. Martin, news director for radio station KBUR and three other stations in the Burlington/Fort Madison area.

Robin Delaney, managing editor of the Fort Madison Daily Democrat newspaper, said: "He has been kind of a bridge for what needs to be kept confidential at the prison and letting the citizens know what is going on. Anything that happens here at the prison not only affects public safety, like an escape, but people have relatives, friends and neighbors who are working there."

Welder's job as the voice of the prison has been a high-pressure, stressful one, partly because his bosses sometimes were blamed or second-guessed by politicians when things went wrong.

He has been the executive assistant to nine wardens since 1979. His successor has not been chosen.

Iowa Corrections Director John Baldwin praised Welder when a legislative committee toured the prison last month. "He has done just an excellent job here," Baldwin said.

Welder said he has tried to be as open as he can in informing the public about developments at the penitentiary complex, which houses about 1,100 prisoners convicted of crimes ranging from theft and robbery to rape and murder.

In recent years, some of his media duties have been handled by Fred Scaletta, an Iowa Department of Corrections employee in Des Moines.

Welder graduated from high school in 1968 in Madrid, where his parents still live, and he received a bachelor's degree in corrections and law enforcement from what is now Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

His first job out of college was at a juvenile center in Johnston, where he learned to be careful after one of the youths poisoned his coffee. He and another employee who drank the brew had to have their stomachs pumped. "I have had a real aversion ever since to coffee that I don't make," he said.

Welder joined the Iowa Department of Corrections in 1977, starting as a counselor at the Mount Pleasant prison.

He transferred 18 months later to Fort Madison, and worked in two management jobs before becoming the warden's executive assistant in 1979.

Over the years, Welder said, he has seen good and bad in people, and the worst hasn't been limited to inmates.

He remembers one prisoner serving a life sentence who sent money home every month for his funeral expenses.

The inmate didn't want to be cremated, which is what happens unless a family pays for a prisoner's burial.

When Welder called the family to tell them the prisoner had died, they told him to cremate the inmate because they needed the money more than he needed to be buried.

"The account was in his mother's name, so we did, and they kept the money," he said.

There's no doubt about what was the biggest news story Welder ever handled.

It was a Sept. 2, 1981, riot, which resulted in 12 penitentiary employees being taken hostage. Convicts controlled the Fort Madison prison for 12 hours, causing $1 million in damage and leaving one prisoner dead.

"It was a very, very crazy time," Welder said.

Welder remembers leaving a briefing in the warden's office late in the afternoon and hearing a double ring on his telephone, indicating the call was from outside the institution.

"I picked it up and I heard this voice on the other end going, 'We are now live at the Iowa State Penitentiary.' He said, 'This is Dan Rather with CBS News, and how are things at Fort Madison?' "

After getting over the shock of realizing he was on national TV, Welder said, he briefed Rather on the developments.

After the riot ended, then-Gov. Robert Ray called with instructions on what to tell the media: "He said, 'I want you to tell them that the institution is back in the control of the staff ... and that we will get to the bottom of how this incident occurred.' ''

Welder said he still respects Ray's approach, which favored openness with the public.

Last week, Ray confirmed Welder's account. "I told him that because it was the truth," Ray said. "That is what we were going to do, and I wanted people to know that."

The inmates here won't be too upset with Welder's retirement, said Steve Wycoff, 55, a longtime Fort Madison inmate who is serving a life sentence. That's because Welder also served as disciplinary and grievance appellate officer for the warden for a number of years, said Wycoff, an Estherville native.

In many instances, though, Welder would apply understanding and often compassion when an inmate had a "break coming" and would provide a compromise, or at least some consideration, Wycoff said.

"I never personally felt that compassion," said Wycoff, who often got into trouble in his younger years. "Welder always dealt with me with a firm hand."

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