|
Fantasy Wheel ©
Investigation
Psychopathology
Serial Crimes
Sex Offenders
Education
Research
Media
Victim Resources
Site Interaction
Contributors
| |
A Murder and Other Things
©Jack:
Behind the Wall
I started this morning on "radio". "Radio is a term for "officer that
does whatever needs doing". I walked to the train gate, a sally port,
with the officer assigned there and met the milk truck, which I escorted
to the kitchen dock. Going back to the sally port, I rode on the running
board. When we arrived, the truck was searched inside and out. The
driver gave me a ride up the hill and I went back inside through the
front door. I told control center I was back and went through the
electronic sliding door to the upper lawn. A Lieutenant asked, "What are
you doing right now?"
Anything you tell me to do, Sir."
"Go with Officer Lang to the hospital."
Officer Lang came running by, so I joined him.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"I do'no. Trouble at the hospital."
We got through the two electronic sliding doors on either side of
control center and through the electronically controlled door to the
hospital. At the Out Patient Clinic, (OPC), we were told that the
trouble was up stairs. Officer Lang took the elevator and I took the
stairs. I got there first. An inmate in one of the rooms was having
convulsions. One officer held his legs while another controlled his
upper body. I got the head, which was hot and sweaty. I talked to the
inmate and told him that we weren't going to hurt him, that we were
trying to help him, that it would be all right. Someone slipped an
oxygen mask over his face. He regained consciousness, only to be hit
with another seizure. I don't know if it helped, but I kept talking,
trying to reassure him. A nurse came in with a hypodermic. Two other
guys and me were bent over this offender. I told her, Pick a butt, any
butt," but the inmate got the goodies.
The ambulance crew arrived and whisked him away.
I went down stairs and washed my hands in disinfectant.
Gave the ID officer in the corridor a break and got a call from control
center to go to tower twelve. I turned in my radio and relieved the
tower officer.
Things are back to normal around here, if you use that term loosely.
When I returned to work Thursday from my two days off, I noticed a line
of cars on the street in a no parking area. I thought, "Uh oh, something
is going on."
Inside, I learned that one inmate I knew fairly well from the visiting
room had been murdered in the ice plant and the two inmates who were
with him had disappeared. The institution was under a total lock down,
but we still had food visits that day. All the inmates had to be
escorted from their units to dress out. While we carried out business as
usual, hordes of E-Squad members, dressed in black, scoured these
forty-seven acres searching.
When the body of the murdered inmate, Toby Viles, was discovered, there
was a note beside his body stating, "We will kill anyone who gets in our
way," or words to that effect. The E-Squad guys did a great job. This
place is honey combed with old tunnels and it wasn't unusual to see a
trap door pop open and have six or seven tired, dirty men emerge from
it.
Saturday morning came and Chris Sims and Shannon Phillips, both
convicted murderers, had still not been found. We didn't think they had
gotten out. There was one report by a woman that she had seen them, but
it proved false. She was arrested.
My theory was that they had made a ladder out of ice and the evidence
melted. The fat one was disguised as a barge and the other one simply
polled him down the river. Somebody said that we should check out an
inmate who was notorious for shoving things up his back side, to see if
they were hiding up there.
I talked to the Major briefly at breakfast. He said, "We're missing
something."
Around eight a.m.; a call came over the radio, "All E-Squad members
report to the ice plant immediately!"
Everyone was exuberant. They had been found.
Captain Mc Kenzie and COI Hovis had gone back to the ice plant. While
tapping on walls, they found one that sounded funny. Hovis poked a hole
in it and an arm came out. Someone yelled, "I give up!"
This Thursday, I saw Mrs. Viles, Toby's mother. I told her how very
sorry I felt for her. She had come to visit a friend of her son,
searching for answers.
We got some criticism from people on the outside because these three
were left to work unsupervised with tools in their possession. My only
comment on that is that when a practices that work without problem for
years and years are generally not perceived as hazardous. Inmate workers
once kept their tools in their cells. Once, all hobby craft projects
were done in the cells. Whether true or not, I have heard that inmate
trustees once manned the towers with guns! We have come a long way since
those days.
The days of this old dinosaur of a prison are numbered. This event only
points out the need to replace it with a modern facility. The last I
heard, we are supposed to take possession of the new place in May. I
will not be surprised if we have more escape attempts and more incidents
before then, but, if we do, we are ready. It's part of the job.
* Please Note: this is a work
of fiction.
|
