I am a female corrections officer prison guard Orco in a state with a relatively High number of death row inmates however few executions are actually carried out I used to work for a large County but I work with a different agency now this County was my first Co job years ago and before that I had worked in retail and customer service while studying criminal justice so I was really green I used to be very liberal I'm still liberal about a lot of things but the job does change your perspective for most people one thing that I used to believe very strongly was that no human being could be truly evil this particular County Gil is one of the oldest in the country so parts of it have a totally linear layout what I mean is that you have a long stretch of corridor with cells on either side and the cosos have to walk up and down to supervise the inmates I am actually giving enough information for anyone with good Google skills to figure that out as you can imagine these linear layouts are not in style anymore because you cannot see every cell at the same time but every inmate can see you I have to say that units like this are extremely creepy too I'm going to call this Corridor the condos we didn't call it that but I do not want to share the exact term which is specific to the gel less than 10 years ago a quadruple stabbing homicide happened not far from where I grew up up the murderer Michaels described it as a butchering and he killed his former girlfriend her family and their neighbor because he came over when he heard the screams when the police found Michael soaked in Blood and asked him what happened he said it's obvious I just killed everyone the cop said that he seemed completely emotionless when he said it at that time I'd only been a CEO for about 4 months and our facility received him as a pre-trial detainee now obviously he wasn't our first or only murderer but the nature of the crime stabbings indicate a more dangerous personality than a shooting for one thing and his lack of remorse was horrifying he was considered a volatile inmate so we placed him in an observation cell in the middle of the condos where SEO could always keep an eye on him he would stand at his glass door in silence most of the day just watching everyone I swear he only really spoke when he had visits he actually had a full visit list of goth girls who would come in and swear they were in love with him I don't know if this means anything but his ex was a big girl and he used to draw pictures of the overweight female cosos for note he was skinny and white with brown hair one day I was working as a utilities officer basically a floater who relieves people for breaks and helps out as needed at this jail utilities officers also got away with a ton of downtime and bsing I was hanging out at one end of the condos where you could look down and see a lot of the jail talking to another officer on duty as they say there are no secrets in jail plus I was a aware that there were points throughout the jail where you could hear very well into neighboring cells that sort of thing we were being pretty quiet though plus we stood a good 50 yards from Michael's observation cell also you have to imagine it would be difficult to stand in the observation cell and press your face against the glass to see the people standing at a right angle so far from you I was telling the CEO a funny story about my weekend which I wouldn't do out on a correctional unit nowadays but we weren't getting into anything too personal either it was long story involving my fiance at the time I wrapped up talking to the co because I had to go to a gate to relieve another officer for chow and I had to pass Michael's cell I didn't like walking past it because he stood there and stared at you and back then I wasn't so good at hiding my nervousness he always had his head slightly tilted down so you could see white Under the irishes of his eyes again rarely saying a word but today was different I took one step past his door and I heard him say Edgecomb in a barely audible whisper I didn't even know he knew my name yes our last names are on our uniforms but I was never his primary officer and we never interacted it called me off guard so instead of ignoring it it stopped me in my tracks and I backpedal to the door he pointed to his mouth and I leaned in to listen his eyes looked so dark I remember I felt hypnotized he proceeded to recite word for word of the story I had just quietly told the officer at the end of the condos less than 2 minutes before even copying the sound of my voice down to a subtle lisp this seemed to go on forever I felt like we were the only two there no 22 mm of glass protecting me just a 5T tall female and a murderer I remember thinking for the first time of another human being this is evil and unfixable finally I said sir did you need something he started to laugh hysterically and I walked away working here I have been assaulted by other inmates I've had piss Thor my my eyes people play mind games with me constantly I've met some damn good lip readers too but this was like something else now I work at a maximum security institution where I babysit sex offenders and murderers and pedophiles I don't know how to make it make sense to you that this was the one and only time in my life where I felt inside of me like I was dealing with something not human Michaels isn't another institution now he's on death row he refuses to appeal he made it clear to the press that this decision is not out of remorse he has none he just doesn't give a [ __ ] and it's most logical in his mind for him to die this story takes place in a very small town in the Northeast region of the United States in the summer before I went off to college in 2015 after I graduated high school my parents decided to move to a smaller more affordable house about 45 minutes north into the mountains we stayed in my childhood home because the public schools in my area were the best in my state my parents really valued my education I ended up going off to an amazing University and now I have an incredible career because of my excellent education as most people in the US know amazing public education usually means higher property taxes my parents got to the point where they could not afford the taxes on their 4,000 ft home anymore and decided to sell it just after I graduated from high school their home is humble and it sits on a beautiful piece of land on the side of a beautiful mountain the trees are always so green and there was a lot of wildlife around they don't have many neighbors either as their driveway is about a mile and a half long but this is what they chose to live in after I went off to college in August of 2015 we moved into this new house I wasn't planning on staying long as I was getting ready to head off to college as a freshman for the first time we decided to have a little housewarming party with a bunch of family friends and my best friend at the time as well my dad was maning the barbecue my mom was making the drinks we were playing with our dogs it was a grand time and everyone had a lot of fun my dad had built a brick fire pit in our backyard just to set the scene for you here the pit was about 30 ft from our back patio door and we had a picnic table and other seats all around behind the seating was the tree line it was so dark sometimes at night you needed a flashlight to see 10 ft in front of you with the fire pit lit you couldn't see someone unless there were either sitting next to you or across from you in front of the pit my best friend decided to stay the night and we asked my dad if we could make s'mores as it was getting a little chilly as it does in the late summer in the Northeast at night my parents left us outside with my dog Nino Nino was a huge 100b black lab pitbull mix he was a very loyal and incredible dog that my dad trained as his right hand he was our protector as he could run extremely fast and was very strong and always alerted us when some something went bump in the night side note he passed away a week before I got married in 2022 he was 17 years old and lived an adventurous life with my parents hunting squirrels laying out in the sun and running a muck Nino was lying in between us facing the tree line and my best friend was to my right our backs were to the dark dense Tree Line our first mistake we were laughing joking and eating s'mores together planning for the future and generally excited about going off to college together she decided to play some music music and we just relaxed feeling contented at ease it was a perfect summer night until Nino started growling I saw his ears perk up and his head cocked to the side he then sat up and continued to growl my friend and I both looked at each other thinking Nino just saw a straight animal or something non-threatening this area was known for lots of deer and really a coyote or wolf as he was trying to help my dad hunt deer we assumed it was a buck or a fawn in the distance behind us we went back to singing along to the music playing and talking about our fall 2015 class schedule again Nino started growling our second mistake we did not call out for my dad we didn't even think there was a problem until Nino started barking repeatedly this time louder and more vicious he stood up and started barking as if alerting us to activity beyond the tree line that we could not see he stood up as well the fire obscuring our view my best friend took her phone paused the music and turned on her flashlight she started to walk towards the edge of the tree line with Nino by her side still growling and barking alerting us to not go any further into call for help we stood still in silence listening I was too afraid to even breathe at this point she started walking to the woods and when she shined her flashlight she saw a figure someone peering behind a tree a man with a green shirt and green pants on maybe 511 with glasses we screamed and ran as fast as we could inside leaving the fire intended and this creepy man behind the tree what we did not know at this time is where this man came from he crashed through the front door breathless with Nino trailing behind us and startled my mother who was washing dishes and cleaning up from the party she was talking to my dad about something they saw on the news and I think we cut him off mid-sentence to explain that there was a man dressed in all green lurking behind a tree in the woods we didn't know how long he was there or he was still there but we were both crying I remember feeling extremely sick like I was going to throw up my dad jumped up grabbed his shotgun and headlamp and ran outside with Nino my mom gathered us into the living room shut off all the lights in the house off and locked the doors she told us to be quiet and that she was going to call 911 as she did that my best friend and I shook in fear we were anticipating gunshots and screaming but never heard any my mom now on the phone with 911 described what we saw to the operator I heard my mom say oh in an alarming way at this point my dad came back inside and my mom let him know that the police were on the way to us being in a small town on the mountain with less than 10,000 people means that we don't get our own police force we get the State Police Every time there is a call made to emergency responders my dad put his gun away and waited outside for the police to show up to our bewilderment they didn't just send one police officer but like 10 and an entire SWAT team and helicopter to circle the area we were rightfully terrified I was practically having a panic attack at this point the police officers came inside her home and asked my best friend in me what the man was wearing what he looked like if we were able to discern any scars or tattoos we explained the weird matching green outfit in the glasses the officer excused himself and alerted the police and swap members outside of our description they started to search the woods beyond our home with guns drawn flashlights and the helicopter circling above they advised us to stay inside and that they would let us know when if they found something after about 25 minutes we got another knock on our door it was not one but two officers at this time my dad let them in and began to explain the situation one officer explained that we must have seen on the news that a convicted felon from the prison about 20 mi away escaped into the mountains the police set up a perimeter of 10 Mi around the prison but the convict escaped them yet again the outfit the man was wearing as well as our description signal to them that the escaped convict was 100% lurking through our remote densely wooded backyard that night the all green outfit was a standard issue for prisoners in my state then they did not however find the man near us after 25 minutes of searching he was still out there the officers let us know that they were going to have a squad car stay and watch our house for a few days as they were unable to locate The Fugitive believe he is still an active threat to our safety that night and for three nights after that we all slept in the living room together my dad's shotgun was within Arms Reach of him at all times later that week we got another knock on our door from the office are stationed outside of our home they let us know that the man was back in police custody and that we were safe they advised us to get security cameras and how sorry they were that this happened to us after that my parents spent about $10,000 on security cameras and fencing for our backyard it is all now fenced in and we have about four cameras to watch the tree line at all times I guess you never know what will happen or what goes bump in the night I'm a 21-year-old male it was July 4th 2019 I live in Kansas in the USA at the time I worked as a corrections officer at a Maximum Security Prison on the night shift the cell house I was in charge of was the maximum general population one man to a cell this is where the worst of the worst are the murderers and anything else you can imagine the overall worst of society before work I was doing the typical American 4th of July thing grilling blowing up fireworks had a beer or two having a great time with my now wife and family my wife kept telling me I need to just call in sick and take the day without pay I said no because we were a little behind on bills but I really wish I would have listened to her now as the night went on it came time for us to leave my mom's and for me to go home and get ready for work I took my wife home and dropped her off got ready and left my wife's car was broke down so she was stuck at home for the night as I drove to work which was about an hour drive away I watched the fireworks going off all around it was sad I never had to work on the force before after I got to work and got all of my equipment I got into my cell House business as usual inmates were showered and locked up I got my night cleaning crew out so they could clean the rest of the cell housee and I met up with my partner for the night in the officer station to get our briefing from the last shift fast forward an hour or so into my shift so now it's around 12:30 a. m. another officer came into the cell house so now there's three of us this happened often on the night shift as there was nothing to do except rounds every half hour or so out of nowhere we hear an inmate laughing like a witch like a cackle that was strange but nothing to be alarmed of drugs Were Somehow a bad problem in that facility still is as far as I know eventually after a few more cackles I decided to go see who was making the sound in case they were high I walked through and checked all 200 inmates nothing there were a small few that were even awake so I brushed it off and just went back to my office my partner and other officer were asking if there was anyone that needed their cell searched I couldn't think of anyone in particular I suspected of having anything so I went and checked all the cells again to see if I could get a whiff of smoke or see something as I was walking on the Second Story cell run I found an inmate that was acting weird he was in his bed facing the wall talking this was also common as there were a lot of inmates with minor mental issues I figured he was high because he turned and looked at me and told me to [ __ ] off I was going to leave him alone but the disrespect made me change my mind time is now 12:40 a.
m. July 5th I walked back to the office and tell the other two officers which cell he was in and I wanted him searched cell 218 so how the cell house is laid out is there are 100 cells per level from the officer station you can see the North side first and second floor but you can't see the South Side unless you walk to 50 ft over to it picture the movie Shaw Shank Redemption type cell house except instead of being able to look through and see cells across you just see a wall the cells are literally back to back as the officers go to pull him out of his cell to search it I went to the ground floor and was watching From Below reason why I want to get the inmate on the ground level and it's not the second floor all that was there for protection from going over the edge was a hand I noticed the inmate was taking forever to get out of his cell he came out in shorts in a do- rag which is weird because he wasn't fully clothed didn't even put sandals on just shorts in a do-rag yet took 5 minutes to get out that made me nervous the inmate was a 6' tall 250 lb muscle bound dude definitely had size on us so from the grounds I hollered at him and tell him to come down to the ground that he could use the phone or check his email or commissary he declined my offer which never happens so I knew something was up he was watching them search his cell from the control panel box this was alarming they were in his cell I was on the ground he could have easily ambushed them he would have made it to them before I could get up the stairs so to try to keep them safe I went upstairs to the inmate he was standing in the corner away against the handrails at the top of the stairs he knew I was the OIC officer in charge of that cell housee and he knew I was the only one that saw him talking to him himself he asked me why I was having a cell searched and I lied I said it's nothing personal man I have a quote I have to fill for cell searched in a night and you were awake so I chose to have you searched it'll just take a second he was uneasy he was pacing he had turned just right and I saw in his dag the Samsung logo reflecting the cell housee light I knew there was going to be a problem as soon as I saw it he had a cell phone I called over the radio for two additional officers to come to me the inate didn't seem to notice I made the call my supervisors responded saying two of them were on their way side note at this time only segregation officers had protective vests so out of the five of us that were now in there only one had a vest how was not that one the officers were names changed South had a vest MCM Mori Collins Sheffield and Me time is now 12:58 a. m.
