Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces 3 - Dave Basham - Страница 34

During a training session, I saw a video of an officer getting beaten by an inmate at Oak Park Heights. The inmate, who was a murderer, had received a bad review from the officer who was an industry foreman. The inmate was angry about it, so he grabbed a foot long crescent wrench and a screw driver. He attacked the officer, beating him with the crescent wrench. He fractured the officer’s skull. Another inmate in the area saw what was happening. The assailant wasn’t letting up. The other inmate threw a box at the assailant to try to stop him from killing the officer. The assailant then attacked the other inmate.

This action had to have saved the officers life. It’s amazing that he wasn’t dead already. Imagine the pain you would feel if you just dropped a foot long hunk of steel on your foot. Then imagine the damage a hunk of steel like that could do if an enraged murderer was smashing it as hard as he could into your skull. Not a pleasant thought. Not a pleasant video. Not a pleasant officer after this incident.

Officer Fracture needed over 40 stitches in his head and had recurring seizures afterward. The assault took place December 3^rd of 1999. The inmate was convicted of assault charges in September of 2000 and after that attempted to kill himself. He succeeded. Too bad he didn’t try and succeed in this endeavor before he ruined this officer’s life.

Officer Fracture was upset that an officer that should’ve been with him was giving a tour at the time. Oak Park was the first Super Max prison ever built. There is a lot of interest in this facility. People from around the world come to see this place. They are able to give lots of tours, because it is relatively safe for visitors to go through it.

Another officer was talking on the phone about fantasy football. An extremely difficult part of this job is to keep focus even when you are bored. It’s tough and a total head game trying to stay alert, but that is a big part of the job. We have to be ready for anything at any time.

Officer Fracture filed charges against those two officers, the Department of Corrections and MINNCOR. MINNCOR is the prison industries program that the officer was a foreman for. When you file a lawsuit, you cast as wide of a net as possible and hope you catch something.

He never discussed the results of this lawsuit with me.

The way that I wound up knowing him and what makes an Oak Park story quite relevant to Stillwater is that part of the settlement got him a prime job at Stillwater. He did not want to go back to Oak Park. Most severely beaten officers that I have known and heard of, find it difficult to walk back into the place where they were beaten.

He got a job in a basement area designated for canteen at Stillwater. This is considered a prime job in the prison. You work with only a few inmates distributing food items to all of the other inmates in the institution. No tools are involved or accessible.

You are protected from the inmates coming down for canteen by a wall with windows in it and there is only enough room under the windows to slide their canteen items through. The glass must be very sturdy, because after 100 years, I never saw even a crack in any of those panels. There is another officer there with you.

This is also where supplies were delivered for the cell blocks. We had to go to this area and get them from him.

There are several other officers just through a doorway handling inmate’s property that is being shipped back and forth between different institutions. They also handle inmate’s special orders like shoes, televisions, books, etc.

Many officers in Stillwater were upset that an officer from another institution could come over here and get a prime job, as if they could’ve all received that job anyway.

Officer Fracture was very different from day to day. I assumed it was depending on the physical repercussions from being beaten bloody. Sometimes he was a total jackass and other times he was the nicest most cooperative person you would ever meet. When he was a jackass, I felt that I could see pain in his face. When you get beaten like that, you are never the same physically or mentally, especially when you get your head caved in by a metal object.

I know. I had my skull caved in by a metal pipe, only not by an assault in prison. The skull actually caves in. You can feel the shape of the pipe indented in your skull. I don’t know if all skulls return to form, but mine did, mostly anyway. I don’t know if swelling of the brain does it or what, but I was glad I didn’t have to walk around with that divot in my head.

Another thing that Officer Fracture was upset about was how the assault affected his retirement. He should’ve been able to retire around the same time as me. He told me he had to use up all of his sick time due to the assault. He said that Workman’s Comp didn’t cover the whole thing. Because he was out so long, he was out without pay for some time. He did not get credit for that time toward his retirement. He had to work longer because of that. You damn near get killed on the job and the state won’t cover your ass, especially when you will be putting up with this injury until you die and might even die sooner because of it; what’s with that crap?

People are sitting out there getting government assistance because they are lazy good for nothing scum that know how to work the system and the state won’t back this guy up that has put his life on the line, what’s with that?