It was around nine in the morning when a rookie
prison officer stood outside a cell located in an administrative segregation wing at a
Texas prison. He was there to take a prisoner to another
unit, but when the inmate got outside of the cell he somehow slipped out of his handcuffs. In the flash of an eye, the prisoner was beating
the officer over the head with a metal bar. The victim’s colleagues not long after viewed
CCTV footage that showed the inmate throwing the officer’s limp body down a staircase. The officer, with less than a year on the
job, left two children behind. The man behind the attack later said to prison
staff, “They didn't know how dangerous I am.” That’s a true story, something that took
place in 2015. It’s a brutal story, but if you’ve been
a prison officer long enough it’s not something all that out of the ordinary. Here are some other terrifying tales from
those people tasked with trying to keep order in some of the most dangerous places in the
world. 10. The worst thing he’d ever seen
This story was told by a retired prison guard. He said that he’d seen everything in the
prisons he’d worked in: people who’d been stabbed to death; people who’d hanged themselves
with bedsheets- all matter of carnage, but only one time did something make him go into
shock. One day he was asked to take a prisoner to
see the doctor. When they arrived at medical, the guy was
asked to pull up his pants. Both his legs were bandaged. When he removed the bandages, what the officer
described seeing was, “rotted, abscessed flesh.” It turned out the inmate had been shooting
up heroin for quite some time and he hadn’t taken care of infections in his legs. The doctor tried to bend one of the inmate’s
legs and it oozed puss all over the place. The doctor then asked the officer to leave
the room. When the officer asked why, the doctor replied,
“You're going into shock, I need you to leave before you pass out.” As you’ll see, it’s not that uncommon
for officers to see things that turn their faces white as a sheet. 9. Extreme fights
This one is short and involves a fight. You all know fights break out in prison quite
a lot, so we won’t include too many regular scrapping stories. However, just to give you an idea of how extreme
violence can get, here’s what one prison officer once saw. One man approached another man and stuck a
shank in his ear. The blade broke off, so what did the man do? He stomped on the shank. According to the officer, the blade came out
of the victim’s mouth and he survived. If you think that’s bad, listen to how a
fight changed one man’s face forever. 8. Taking it on the chin
One day an officer got a call that there was a fight in the shower. When he arrived at the scene one inmate had
pushed another inmate over a bench in the shower room, jumped on the guy, and then somehow
during the tangle he’d bitten off the guy’s chin. The officer, no stranger to violence, was
the person responsible for scooping up the bit of chin flesh that was on the floor. If things weren’t hectic enough, on the
way to the hospital the ambulance hit a deer. The officer, who was in the car behind, also
hit the unfortunate animal. Maybe inmates don’t receive the best medical
treatment, because the officer said that the doctor seemed to just slap that bit of lost
chin right onto the man’s face. Lo and behold, in not much time the wound
became gangrenous and the guy almost died from the infection. His chin was never the same after that. This next incredibly obscene story will make
you think about how sanity can so easily be lost in an isolation cell. 7. The birthday boy
An officer was working in the segregation unit when he looked through one of the doors. What he saw was an inmate sitting on the floor
with his legs around the toilet basin. At the same time, the man had his hands in
the toilet and looked as if he was chewing on something. The officer, thinking this didn’t look good,
said he opened the food slot in the door. When he did that he was hit with the most
repugnant odor. This guy was eating his own excrement. He called another officer for some help and
both of them tried to talk the man out of eating his own poop. The guy then told the officers that he couldn’t
finish all his “birthday cake” and did they want some. Obviously, a lot of time in solitary had driven
the guy crazy. Our next story proves that being a prison
corrections officer means you have to have a strong stomach, and a willingness to get
very, very dirty. 6. The devil’s bag
This next story comes from an officer who worked at LA’s infamous Twin Towers Correctional
Facility. He said this place is well-known for the number
of mentally ill inmates it is home to, so it wasn’t so uncommon for the guy to get
home from work and after his wife asked him about his day he’d say, “Er, another guy
removed his own testicles.” With that in mind, what was a really bad day
for this officer? He’d been called to this inmate’s cell
only to see through the door that the guy had covered himself in his own poop. This can happen at times since inmates want
the officer’s job to be hard when they try and take them down to the floor. But then the inmate grabbed more poop and
just started packing his mouth with it. According to the officer, the prisoner was
trying to suffocate himself with poop. Somehow the prisoner then got hold of a plastic
bag, something he shouldn’t have had in his cell. He put that bag around his poop-filled face
and tried to suffocate himself some more. That’s when the officers got in the cell
and pounced on him. In the officer’s own words, “I ruined
my uniform that day.” When the inmate was fully restrained the inmate
just grinned, as if looking off into the distance. The officer said, “I can't really convey
how creepy it was, but you get my point. He wouldn't respond to any of our questions,
didn't cry, didn't say anything.” The officer eventually got through to the
guy and asked him where did he manage to find a plastic bag. The inmate looked at him with that grin still
on his face and said, “The devil gave it to me.” Our next story is not for anyone squeamish
at the sight of blood. 5. The bloody escape artist
The next story was told by a former British prison officer named Neil Samworth. He’s been featured in quite a few podcasts
and has talked openly about some of the horrendous things he saw on the job. He said that day-to-day you might see sad
and shocking things in a prison, but he also said you have your “one-percenters.” These are the guys that can still shock officers
who’ve grown a very thick skin. One such inmate had only been given a short
sentence, but that was lengthened after a few escape attempts. One day this guy managed to get a gun sneaked
into the prison hospital where he was housed, and that time his escape was successful. His freedom didn’t last for long, though,
and he was eventually sent to Strangeways prison where Samworth worked. Because of his ability to escape, he turned
up at Strangeways connected to a body belt, but he managed to slip even out of that. Samworth said this guy had to be watched all
the time because he was a chronic self-harmer. He said the inmate was always respectful and
polite, but he hated it when the light in his cell was turned on. One night he asked for it to be turned off,
and Samworth asked his superior if he could do that. She said no. It’s worth mentioning here that Samworth
has been critical at times of prisons and prison officers. The inmate proceeded to rip out all the light
fittings, after which all the lights in the other cells turned off because they were all
connected. The inmate then slid some of the fitting under
the door, just to show off to the officers. He soon taught other inmates how to take out
the lights. Apparently, it took some skill and effort. But the inmate didn’t stop there. He may not have had the tools to self-harm,
but using his own sharpened fingernails he could create so much blood it filled the floor
of the cell. He did this so much, a kind of skin covered
the floor. The prison governor then decided the only
thing for him was a special cell in the segregation unit, but in that cell he managed to break
through a wall and again pull out electrical wires. He then cut himself deeply and filled the
cell with his own blood. There was so much blood loss, he fainted. Our next story is very eye-popping- literally. 4. An eye for an eye
One prison officer told a story about two cellmates whom he said were usually on good
terms and never caused anyone any trouble. For the most part, they were quiet and respectful. Then one night the officer heard screaming
coming from that cell. He went to investigate and saw one of the
inmates lying calmly on his bed with his eyes closed. The other guy was making the most awful noises. In one of his hands was his own eyeball still
dangling from the optic nerve and surrounded by what looked like a foamy substance. After the guy was sent to the hospital the
officers asked the other inmate what had happened. He told them matter-of-factly that his cellmate
had been bothering him while he was trying to sleep. For that, he’d gotten the inmate down and
scooped out his eyeball with a spoon. He said he just wanted some “peace and quiet.” Hope you aren’t getting squeamish on us,
because our next story has plenty of gore. 3. Blood and guts
One officer said he had an inmate that had gone into hospital to have some surgery on
his stomach. The inmate spent a few days in a hospital
bed, and then was released. One day when he was in his cell the officer
walked past his door, only to see something strange. The inmate was sitting on the floor with his
back to the door, his arms doing something in front of him and his legs stretched out. The officer decided that this didn’t look
right, especially when the inmate didn’t respond to questions. This prisoner had never done anything harmful
to himself in the past, but something was amiss on this day. When the officer said again, what are you
doing, the inmate said, “Go away.” This is what the officer said happened next:
“I had the door opened by the control center and when the door opened It let in enough
light into the cell for me to see a bloody handprint on the floor next to him.” He ordered the inmate to stand up so he could
be handcuffed. This usually quiet prisoner did as he was
told, except when he put his hands behind him they were covered in blood. The officer then got on his radio and asked
for some backup. What had happened is the inmate had taken
out his stitches, but now since there was easy access, he decided to go inside and start
pulling bits of his guts out. Why? The inmate said he had wanted to “play”
with them. This is what the officer said about that day:
“I've responded to stabbings, rapes, beatings, large scale gang fights, I've had to forcefully
lock down entire pods who were non-compliant with directives to lock down. And even with all of those experiences, the
‘guts guy’ as my coworkers and I call him now, definitely stands out.” Our next prison horror story proves that if
you like your eyes safely inside your skull, maybe do your best to stay out of prison. 2. The pirate
This story comes from a juvenile prison in the US. According to a web forum, an officer said
that two young offenders were housed in the same cell, except one of the kids was well-known
for being violent and the other kid was not aggressive at all. One day the violent kid decided he was going
to extract a screw from a bench and hide it. During the night he pulled out the screw and
went over to where the other guy was sleeping. He got on top of him and screamed out loud,
“I’m going to make you a pirate.” He proceeded to push the screw in the other
guy’s eye. When the first responder got to the cell,
he asked the inmate why he had done such a thing. The kid replied, “He looked at me the wrong
way.” Don’t worry, our last prison horror story
doesn’t involve things getting shoved into people’s eyes, instead it includes something
being shoved somewhere much more sensitive… Inmate G
The officer telling this story said he used to work at a prison in Tennessee. He’d usually work on the medium security
wings, which he enjoyed, but from time to time because of staff shortages he was asked
to work in the ultra max unit. He said he dreaded those days because many
of the inmates had serious mental issues. One of those inmates he named Inmate G. This guy was what you might call hard to control,
and from the sounds of it, mentally unwell. One day the officer was delivering food to
each cell through the food slots and Inmate G was shouting and screaming because it was
taking too long. In fact, he was so upset he made something
called a “stinger”. Despite what some of our viewers think, us
guys at the Infographics Show have not done hard time, so we’ll let the officer describe
in his own words what a stinger is: “A paperclip or even notebook wire folded
over to plug into the socket and have one end stick out to get hot and light paper on
fire. The ultra max unit is set up so if anything
is plugged in an outlet that cell’s power gets tripped.” The officer then wrote up a disciplinary report,
but because of what was going down, the entire wing was screaming and shouting. It was chaos. Inmate G kept on shouting, so the officer
called for some backup. As the officer was waiting for help to arrive,
Inmate G looked at him through the door. He took out a pen and pulled out the wire
spring. He then started cutting himself on the wrist
and around the throat with the wire, at which point the officer got on the radio and asked
for responders and medical staff to come. Blood was everywhere, but Inmate G didn’t
stop there. He stripped off his clothes, and for the next
two minutes, he pushed that wire into his urethra. The officer later said about this, “We finally
got him out of the cell and had to send him to the special needs/medical prison down the
road. That was almost an every week thing with him.” Now you need to watch, “Why No One Has Ever
Escaped Devil's Island Prison.” Or, have a look at, “What Happens In The
H Unit At Federal Supermax Prison?”
