By C1 Staff
HUNTSVILLE — A scholarship set up in memory of a fallen corrections officer is helping another former corrections officer reach her dream of becoming a lawyer.
“I want to be an attorney,” Mealnie Smith told the Item Online. “That’s where you get a say-so and the justification to speak up for the innocent. If someone is being victimized, you get to speak for them, too.”
The scholarship helping her to pursue her dream was created for Correctional Officer Susan Canfield, who was killed whole supervising inmates outside the Wynne Unit in Huntsville in 2007. She and her horse were struck and killed by two inmates who were trying to escape in a stolen vehicle.
The scholarship was set up by then-Wynne Warden Chris Bell and employees from across the Texas Department of Criminal Justice contributed to the scholarship fund.
The TDCJ training center created a coin in Canfield’s honor, and the proceeds from sales of the coin at the Texas State Prison Museum went to the scholarship fund. Each year, fundraisers are held in Canfield’s memory to raise more money for the endowment.
“We created the scholarship so that she will never be forgotten,” said Warden Billy Hirsch, an SHSU alumnus who runs the Wynne Unit today. “We took an oath to protect the public and to put ourselves in harm’s way. Members of the military and police put themselves in harm’s way on a daily basis. Very seldom do we have to put ourselves directly in harm’s way, but she did and she made the ultimate sacrifice.
“She was a real, live hero, and she should never, ever be forgotten.”