• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Richard speck prison video transcrip Continue UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tower 1. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here. SEIGENTHALER: It's 6:45 a.m. at Stateville Correctional Center. Officers are preparing for their day at 7am to 3am. Over the next eight hours, 400 corrections officers will shrug off more than 2,600 inmates. Before most prisoners wake up, people and mechanisms whose sole purpose is to ensure the safety of prisoners begin their daily lives. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have nine (unintelligible) coming their way. Officer MICHAEL WHITE, CORRECTIONAL CENTER STATEVILLE: Ten or four. SEIGENTHALER: Officer Michael White's responsibility is to stand guard in Tower 14, from which he sees the entire northeast corner of Stateville. He has been working for more than five years. You have to be serious, serious about it. It's very easy to get kind of weak here, you know, because, you know, you're dealing with people and you're dealing with guys really trying to carry you down and find a weakness in you. You know, I'd say a serious, serious prison, you know? SEIGENTHALER: Even as whites stand a vigil, the day also begins for some new arrivals to prison. Many of them end up spending more time here than most guards would in their careers. Passing through the first of many external gates, there is no doubt about this for a minimum or medium level of facility security. Stateville's reputation is well known. OMNI WALTON, INMATE, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: From what I hear, people kill each other and things like that. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) guys are doing life and stuff down (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and- I hear a lot of bad things about it (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Kind of scary because you're going to be here and you see it all like, maximum security and the like. So I'm going to stay in myself, man, hope for the best, let me get (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here. SEIGENTHALER: Prisoner Walton and Officer White make up the opposite ends of Stateville. White will spend eight hours in his tower. Once Walton is processed in the system, he will join his fellow inmates who spend more than 20 hours each day in their cells. The relationship between the guards, the prisoners and the prison in which they both live is more than 75 years old. Construction here began in 1916, and the prison opened in 1925. It was different from any other prison in the world. The circular cell phone houses revolved around and connected through the tunnels to the huge central dining room. Today, one of the original cell houses remains the only one of its kind in the country. Stepping into it conjures up images of gladiators, entering the Colosseum. CARRIN HUNTER, CELL HOUSE SUPERINTENDENT, STATEVILLE: It's very helpful because basically you can stand in one place and get the whole house cage. You can also watch the officers on the gallery floor, not just just tower, but anyone in the house can see if something goes wrong. So, you know, I'm glad it's a round house. I love it. SEIGENTHALER: The original design, however, proved difficult to maintain and was subsequently replaced. One of the few remaining original buildings is this rectangular cell building, the longest such structure in the world. Thirty-three feet high concrete walls surround 64 acres that make up the entire prison. Looking through the establishment, it is gray, desolate and foreboding. SERGIO GOMES, KUAMER, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: I grew up hearing how those old time from talking about being here made it sound, you know how cool you were to be here. But I went down here, it wasn't - it wasn't something like that. It's all mixed up. Dude, it's all going to get mixed up! It sucks. SEIGENTHALER: Stateville has long been home to some of Illinois' most violent criminals. The vast majority of prisoners are in for murder or violent assault. JOHN JOHNSON, INMATE, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: It's hard, man. I mean, prison isn't good, you know? It doesn't sound like the fault of the state, you know? You're living a criminal life, that's where you're going to come to life. SEIGENTHALER: Stateville has posted its fair share of notorious criminals. John Wayne Gacy, convicted of killing 33 young men and boys in the late 1970s, and Richard Speck, convicted of killing eight nursing students in 1966, were sentenced to death in a Stateville execution chamber. Speck died of a heart attack in 1991. Gasi was executed by lethal injection in 1994. The last execution in Stateville took place in 1998. Since then, all executions in Illinois have taken place in another high-security facility. Until it is demolished, The Stateville Death Chamber remains fully operational as a backup system. With such a high concentration of violent offenders among inmates, it is only natural that violence will continue within the walls of Stateville. Over the years, there have been a number of incidents that are still reflected in the old days. JAMES FILES, INMATE, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: In the old days we had quite a bit of violence here. When you got up in the morning, you'd take a couple of magazines (ph) to tape them to your chest or back and you'd go out and you'd be wearing a shank with you wherever you went because you didn't know what was going to happen, who you were going to fight. There were always problems. OFFICER CHARLES FLETCHER, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: I've been here for 11 years now, and most of the holes you see around us are mine (f). I saw (unintelligible) beat. I've seen prisoners killed. I saw them stabbed. I saw bloody fights here. SEIGENTHALER: One person who knows better than most Captain Kenneth Morgan. He has worked here for more than 28 years. He saw the violent potential of prison at its worst. CAPT. KENNETH MORGAN, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: We had a lot of problems with gangs here in Stateville, with a shank, an attack and a stabbing, an attack on other inmates. We had an officer named Officer Kush, probably one of the best officers I've ever known. He was returning from Chow Chow, returning to G-dorm, and on his way back there were a couple of prisoners. They were hiding, and they were waiting for him. And they hit him in the head in the area right here, and they dumped his body right here. Here they dumped the body. SEIGENTHALER: Officer Kush has been one of eight Stateville officers to lose their lives in prison violence since the prison opened in 1925. For many, violence was accepted as a way of life in a maximum security prison. But for others it was a shocking and disturbing realization that the prisoners had too much power. This also applies to a young corrections officer who occasionally tours Stateville. WARDEN KENNETH BRILEY, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: It was a very dangerous place not only for staff but also for prisoners. There just really wasn't very much control in Stateville. I remember when they took one of the houses and they set it on fire and times that they were holding hostages. SEIGENTHALER: Things may have remained the same in Stateville until something happened that couldn't be tolerated, something that shocked the entire nation and forced Stateville to undergo sweeping reforms. Let's get up: the exploits of a mass murderer in Stateville spark mass prison reform. This is next on Lockup. (END OF VIDEOTAPE) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (START OF THE VIDEOTAPE) CAMPBELL CLAYTON, INCIDENT, STATEVILLE CORRECTIONAL CENTER: You know, I regret what happened in the past. But I mean, it's not for nothing. You know, it brought me here at a young age. He told me a lot, opened his eyes a little more. So get out there and try to do what's right for my little son and all that. SEIGENTHALER: By the early 1990s, Stateville was one of the wildest and most violent prisons in the country. It was a difficult place for both correctional officers and inmates. All of Chicago's most powerful gangs thrived here, continuing the same business for which they were arrested outside. The strong preyed on the weak. FILES: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) You were just fighting for your own territorial rights, and you fought for what was yours and for what you bought and didn't let anyone take anything away from you. WHITE: It was almost like a question mark whether you really wanted to come sometimes. You know, it was a little wild, a little less restrictive, traffic and SEIGENTHALER: And then, in 1995, the whole world was tearing up how wild Stateville was. A video has surfaced detailing Richard Speck's prison exploits. Filmed by other inmates, the video included scenes in which Speck and his lover had sex and snorted what appeared to be cocaine. Illinois lawmakers said the records confirmed long-standing rumors of gross misconduct in the state's prison system. Prison officials stated that it was an aberration and that it pointed to the difficulties involved in trying to control thousands of prisoners, with only hundreds of guards. The dust caused by the tapes demanded an answer. DONAL SNYDER, DIR., ILLINOIS DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS 1999-2003: What Speck Tape did is enlighten the public about what's going on for not only the Illinois Department of Corrections, but corrections across the country. And the public demanded that change take place. The behavior that made them work in prison, we should not tolerate this, with the same behavior, why they are incarcerated with us.

Load more

  3

Copy Link