05x10 - The Jail

[bunniefuu]

D Tower houses the worst of the worst.

Super-max, if you will.

Boom, baby!

(LAUGHS)

Open up!

Come here!

It's dark and it's dirty.

It felt like it was a predator stalking me.

It knows where I am.

He can see us.

There is something very dark going on here.

This is going to k*ll me.

(SHRIEKS)

(METALLIC DOORS CLANKING)

(METALLIC DOORS SHUTTING)

(TWANGY GUITAR MUSIC)

(POLICE RADIO CHATTER)

I was proud to wear the badge.

I was proud to be a detention officer.

I enjoyed it.

2009, I was being transferred to Estrella Jail, which is an all-female facility.

I was going to be working the night shifts.

From 8:00 p.m. in the evening to about 6:00 in the morning.

I had heard a lot of rumors about Estrella Jail.

But what's the worst that can happen?

(BUZZER BLARING)

I walked in to check in with security control.

It's pretty much the brain of the entire jail.

(EERIE MUSIC)

(KNOCKS)

Hello?

And I'm kind of waving at the camera like, "hey," you know, "I'm here."

Hello?

It's Officer Yates. It's my first day.

Can you let me in?

Nothing.

Just nothing.

Eventually, the officer let me in.

And there was definitely anxiety of meeting the new team.

Okay, folks.

Just a few items for today.

What kind of attitudes am I gonna be met with?

You know, are people gonna say, "Hey, what's up, how're you doing?"

You know, "Glad to have you on board."

We have a new officer with us today.

Welcome aboard.

Jay Yates, welcome.

Thank you.

So you will be partnered up with Officer Brown.

Okay?

Officer Yates, I'm Officer Brown.

Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

I was wet behind the ears. I was green as possible.

I was a, uh, complete rookie.

I got it.

He just looked young, he didn't look seasoned.

He was a kid. That's really my impression.

Officer Brown and Officer Yates are gonna be up on D Tower tonight.

D Tower is a housing unit, um, that we house the worst of the worst.

Super-max, if you will.

Officer Brown and Officer Yates.

Requesting access to D Tower.

It's a jail within a jail.

It's a punishment tower.

(METALLIC DOORS CLANKING)

I start seeing that the lights are starting to flicker.

It's becoming hotter and hotter.

It was hotter than most parts of the jail that I'd been in before.

There's, like, food on the ground and, you know, the smell is horrendous.

This paint is just terrible.

There's graffiti written all over the walls.

It was almost like the forgotten tower of Estrella Jail.

Has it always been like this?

Never been here, myself, so...

You never been here?

(SIGHS) Not to this part.

How long have you worked here?

Almost a year.

Male officer on the floor.

(WOMEN EXCLAIMING)

Boom, baby!

(POUNDING, INDISTINCT YELLING)

Open up!

(POUNDING, INDISTINCT YELLING)

Just screaming and yelling and just hysteria.

It was like a gladiator arena.

Where you going? (INDISTINCT YELLING)

(LAUGHS) You can't run from us, baby!

You want to play with fire?

Oh, we got a newbie.

Let me out!

Oh, you scared?

Let me out of this dang cell!

Yeah, right.

(INDISTINCT YELLING)

I was, uh... I was a little scared.

Fresh meat, baby!

Come here!

You all right, man?

Open up!

(INDISTINCT CRYING)

I'm gonna get you!

(BUZZER BLARING)

At the start of every shift, we relieve the other officers on duty.

Hey, guys.

The officers seemed kind of stressed out.

They seemed exhausted.

How was your night?

How's it going, guys?

Officer Yates.

They left without even speaking.

It's kind of awkward behavior, not something that I would definitely normally see, right?

From the control room, you can see all four cell blocks.

You can see all corridors.

There's a few blind spots, but that's what we have cameras for.

They're everywhere.

Day or night.

(TELEVISION STATIC)

All right, I'll go do count first.

I volunteered to do count that night.

I really wanted to get an idea of, like, what the facility was like.

(RADIO STATIC AND CHATTER)

(BUZZER BLARES)

(FAINT INDISTINCT YELLING)

(LOUD THUD)

Hi, baby!

Count is the single most important thing that we do on our job, ever.

As long as those inmates are there where they're supposed to be, everything else doesn't matter.

(FAINT POUNDING)

And then I noticed something kind of strange.

Why is there a sergeant inside the house unit?

Part of me is thinking maybe I screwed up and did something wrong my... You know, my first day here.

Or maybe, um... maybe they're just coming to say hello.

Maybe?

(BUZZER BLARES)

I walked into the control room...

There was nobody in there.

Hey, where'd the Sergeant go?

What do you mean?

No one's come in since you've left.

I didn't know what he was talking about.

I could've sore I just saw...

Just me here.

I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that there was a sergeant standing right behind him.

I was left confused.

Think I just need some coffee or something.

Oh, yeah, we got some right here.

Security checks are done approximately every 25 minutes.

All night long.

I'm gonna go do my count.

Okay.

(FAINT YELLING)

It was 11:00, it was lights out.

Lights out, ladies.

Hit your bunks. 11:00 p.m.

(FAINT INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

(LIGHTS CLICKING OFF)

It's very quiet.

There's a certain kind of silence that's different inside of a jail.

And then, suddenly, I hear...

Clink, clink, clink, clink... slam!

(DOOR SLAMMING)

I noticed a door was open.

Well, that door shouldn't be open.

(DOOR CLANGING)

I'm thinking, "What is going on?"

This is Yates in D Tower.

Go ahead.

(DOOR CLANKING)

I got a door opening and closing in hallway four.

They told me that the door was decommissioned, it doesn't work.

Copy that.

I assumed that it probably was just a maintenance issue.

Went back to doing, you know, my work.

And then I started hearing footsteps.

(FOOTSTEPS)

I assumed my partner had come back.

(FOOTSTEPS CONTINUE)

But couldn't see anything with my eyes down the hallway.

(FOOTSTEPS CONTINUE)

The footsteps stopped right at the door.

When I'd look up at the camera view... there's nobody there.

I'm figuring, I'm a new guy, maybe they're kind of hazing me a little bit, maybe it's kind of like a joke.

All right, guys, very funny.

You got me... You pranked the new guy.

All of a sudden, I heard...

(POUNDING)

(EERIE MUSIC)

(POUNDING)

There's nobody there.

There's nowhere they could have hid, there was nowhere they could have gone.

I'm thinking to myself like, "Wow, this is gonna be a really long night."

Maybe tomorrow night will be much easier.

Hey, you catch the Cardinals game last night?

I noticed that the seasoned staff, they were literally robots.

It's part of our job as detention officers to be desensitized, to not show emotion.

But it's a whole 'nother level that was happening at this jail.

Yates, Simpson.

I got paired with Officer Simpson.

I got you two guys on D Tower tonight.

You got it.

That's three times this week.

Come on.

Officer Simpson was just pacing back and forth.

He was kind of talking to himself a little bit.

I can't do this, I can't do this.

I can't do this, I can't do...

He knows where I am.

He can see us.

I'm like, "Okay, this is kind of weird."

It was a few hours later into my shift.

Hey, you okay, man?

No, I got to get out of here.

Get out of here?

I need to go.

You're not feeling well?

Here, I got a soda, you want it?

And all of a sudden, I noticed a man in one of the cell blocks.

Hey, who is that?

And I'm like, "Okay, who the hell is that?"

I'm gonna go on my security check.

When I arrived to the location, he was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, I heard...

But I don't want to! I don't want to.

I don't want to! (GIGGLES)

(CLATTERING)

Inmate.

No!

I... no!

No!

(WOMAN CRYING)

Inmate.

I'm like, "Who is she talking to?"

No, no, no.

(RAT SQUEAKS)

What I saw wasn't natural.

That look, that stare, kind of perforated through my entire body.

I was frozen in fear.

He's here and he told me to k*ll myself.

She kept telling me that, "He was here, he was here."

Inmate, this is a secure facility.

The only officer on the floor is me.

No, no, no, no! (INMATES YELLING INDISTINCTLY)

Officer Yates to medical.

So, that day, I was working medical.

Jay called and said, "I need you down here, I need medical."

I need you to bring an inmate to medical.

She needs a psych evaluation.

(INMATES YELLING INDISTINCTLY)

Oh, baby!

Let me out.

He was here.

The Sergeant was here.

And he told me I got to k*ll myself.

That time of night, there was no reason for a sergeant to be in a cell block.

Is he still here?

He's right behind you.

(EERIE MUSIC)

Hey.

He was here.

The Sergeant was here and he told me I got to k*ll myself.

Is he still here?

He's right behind you.

There was nobody there.

But I knew that I had seen something on the monitors.

Who was that sergeant?

(GIGGLES) It's not gonna do anything!

It's gonna be okay. Yeah, I got her.

I got her. You're gonna be okay.

Just follow me.

(TWANGY GUITAR MUSIC)

I was worried about Jay every day.

Just like cops that work the streets, his life was in danger.

So every single day, it was a relief.

To have someone that's more than just your wife, I mean, for her to be your best friend...

that's something that, you know, it's hard to find.

So how did it go?

(CHUCKLES)

I'm exhausted.

I'm sorry.

Hey, Dad, can you see my report card?

Not today, buddy. Daddy's tired, okay?

Okay.

It was very strange.

'Cause usually, he would spend time, um, with the boys.

But today, he started actually really being distant.

My mind was just completely... just sh*t.

My body was sh*t.

(EERIE MUSIC)

And I'm thinking to myself, "I've got to get out of D Tower."

I can't do this job at this place every day with all that was going on.

(CLOCK TICKING)

Later that night, I was back in Estrella.

(METALLIC DOOR OPENS)

Suddenly, I hear a slider door opening.

(METALLIC DOOR CLANKING)

But there was nobody down any of the hallways.

All the inmates were asleep, they're inside their cells.

Didn't make any sense.

I started to hear a screeching.

(SCREECHING)

I assumed that it was my partner dragging a chair to the tower.

But then I realized he wasn't in D Tower.

(SCREECHING CONTINUES)

Suddenly, the chair was gone.

Boom, like, right on my face out of nowhere.

(CHAIR THUDDING)

Who just threw a chair at my tower?

This is Officer Yates.

Identify yourself.

Identify yourself!

Looking around, 360 degrees, there's no one there.

These things that were happening, there was no logical explanation.

It was, like, nonstop.

(BUZZER BLARING)

It's early morning hours, everyone's asleep, everyone's completely out.

And I'm watching my partner conduct a security walk.

It was around 1:00 in the morning.

Most inmates were sleeping.

Every shift, we have to do three random cell searches.

I noticed two girls were awake.

Chill with the light, yo!

Stand up to be cuffed.

Got to perform a cell search.

Yo, seriously.

Hands out here, please.

Yates, performing a cell search on 1A4.

Got eyes on me? Copy that.

All right, open the door, please.

Right there.

Don't move until I say.

Doing a cell search, you're very vulnerable.

I was exposed, I was relying on my partner to keep an eye on the inmates.

Yates, you have eyes on me?

Affirmative.

I'm looking for contraband, whether it be weapons, dr*gs.

Suddenly, I felt like I wasn't by myself.

(EERIE MUSIC)

I'm searching the bottom bunk, and all of a sudden...

(SHOUTS)

I knew somebody wanted to hurt me.

But the inmates are sitting about 15, 20 feet away from me.

Did you move? Did you get up?

Did you just move? Did you touch me?

Did you grab me?

No.

Unless you want us to.

(LAUGHS)

At that time, I was 190 pounds.

I don't think the females that I pulled out could've done that.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

If it wasn't the inmates, you know, what was it?

You want your mommy?

(CHUCKLES)

(BUZZER BLARING)

Where you at? Where you at?

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Oh, I see now!

Arms off.

Come here!

Walking in my first day at Estrella was... you know, like the lost kid at the first day of school.

And I walked in and everybody was just kind of quiet, like they didn't know what to say or what to do.

I recognized Officer Yates, and I was like, "Hey."

Remember me?

Padilla.

Hey.

He wasn't being the officer that I first knew him as.

What's going on? Long night?

He wasn't so well-kept anymore, not shaven, and just looking very, you know... down.

It was weird to see, and it was out of place.

It's just something you don't normally see on him.

Okay, we have a new officer joining us today.

Officer Padilla, welcome aboard.

Uh, she will be working with Officer Yates at D Tower tonight.

I was doing security walk while Officer Yates was in the control room.

D Tower just seemed neglected.

It's dark and it's dirty.

I've never seen a tower like that before in a jail.

(MAN GRUMBLING INDISTINCTLY)

I heard what I thought was a male voice.

I'm in a female facility.

Why am I hearing a male's voice?

Where the hell is this coming from?

(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

All right, maybe it's from outside.

(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

And I could still hear the voice.

I radioed Yates.

Yates, can you come down here?

I hear a voice; I think there's someone down here.

She kept saying, you know,

"I'm hearing this male voice talking."

Okay, I'll just finish up and be right there.

What the hell is going on?

Who is this and what do they want?

Suddenly, I hear it from the other side of the cell block.

And then the voice stopped.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

And then, all of a sudden...

I saw a man.

Hello?

Sergeant?

Hello?

Hello?

He wasn't there.

The man had vanished from the corner.

It scared the crap out of me.

(EERIE MUSIC)

I saw something.

Someone.

I knew no other officer that could've been there.

All right, let's go back to the control room.

You would've known.

Another officer's presence would've been known there.

I'm like, "Okay, I'm not crazy.

She saw it, this is some real stuff going on."

(WOLF HOWLING)

Day by day, Jay was changing.

His attitude, his demeanor, and everything was completely changing.

It scared me as a wife.

I didn't know what to do.

And now over to Crystal, reporting live from Maricopa County.

Just a few hours ago, a detention officer from Estrella Jail was found unconscious here in his home.

Doctors believe it was an attempted su1c1de.

Paramedics did their best to revive Mr. Mark Simpson, and he is now in critical condition at a local hospital.

This is not the first time that a staff member from Estrella Jail has attempted to take their own life.

It felt like a ton of bricks hit my chest.

That is the same jail my husband's working at.

Later that night, I was back in D Tower.

(POUNDING)

It was time for the first security check of the night.

My partner was up in the control room.

I hear what sounds like a choking, like a... (WHEEZES).

I hear the noise again... (WHEEZES).

You know? Like this gasp of air.

(CHOKING)

I knew what that sound was.

That was the sound of someone hanging themselves.

(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC)

(CHOKING CONTINUES)

There's nobody there.

She's literally hanging.

She was gone.

Just gone.

I just lost my grip, I just lost all...

I felt like I lost my sanity.

Hey, Yates.

I was worrying that he was going to, you know, maybe drive himself sick.

He was going to maybe take his own life.

Yates.

It was hard.

It was hard to see him go through this.

And I tried talking to him and, you know, he really kind of just brushed me off.

Said, you know, "Everything's fine."

I worried that, whatever was going on in this jail, it was gonna take me to a place to where maybe I'd take my own self out.

You know? That's what I worried about.

And suddenly, I had this overwhelming sensation that I wasn't alone.

Look into my rearview mirror... There was nobody there.

But still, in the back of my mind, I couldn't shake the thought that there's... There's someone following me.

Hey, kids?

Come on in, it's time to eat, okay?

It was finally the weekend, and Jay and I both were gonna have a day off.

Usually, we'd take the kids, load up, go hiking.

(DOOR SLAMS CLOSED)

Oh, good.

Oh, hey, Dad.

But Jay was like a zombie.

I mean, he didn't even look at me.

Jay.

At that moment, I was a little angry at him.

I told him, "Jay, get up, get in the shower, get your clothes."

Come on, we're ready to go, right?

You excited?

I'm not going anywhere, I'm not doing anything, all right?

Jay.

Damn it, woman, give me a break.

What's wrong with you?

The kids and I were gonna spend the whole day with you.

Did I tell you to come in here, woman?

He was just treating me like I was just an inmate.

And every day, it was just getting worse.

I had to do something to bring my husband back.

I couldn't live on this earth without him.

So that would be... the worst thing in the world.

I wanted to find out what was going on with my husband and this jail.

A news story popped up.

In court today, in a case that has shocked this small Phoenix community, Maricopa County detention officer Dean Thomas has pleaded guilty to one charge of first degree m*rder for k*lling his wife in 2005.

I really didn't want anything to do with anybody.

I just wanted to be alone.

I wanted to be by myself.

Officer Thomas' family reports that they noticed a significant change in his personality after he began working at Estrella Jail.

All of a sudden, I heard the door.

I assumed that it was my wife.

Damn it, Marie, will you give me some space?

Marie!

I see this lady.

I had no idea who this woman was.

Hello?

She wasn't even blinking, she was just staring at me.

And suddenly...

(SHRIEKS)

(EERIE MUSIC)

In court today, Maricopa County detention officer Dean Thomas has pleaded guilty to one charge of first degree m*rder...

I'm like, "Okay, this is really scary."

On the 15th of February, 2005, detention officer Dean Thomas left his shift at the jail, and in a vicious att*ck, k*lled his wife by stabbing her repeatedly in the back with a kitchen Kn*fe.

Was the same thing gonna happen to me?

(DOOR CREAKING) All the sudden, I heard the creaking sound of our front door.

Jay?

Jay?

Jay?

Jay?

He didn't say nothing to me.

Honey?

All the sudden, he turned his head.

And he looked at me, and goes...

I'm waiting for the inmates.

What?

I'm like, "Babe, wake up, you're not in the jail.

Wake up."

Please.

Jay, come on, honey. Please look at me.

Please, Jay, you've got to turn around, okay?

(GROWLS)

(SCREAMS)

It scared the living crap out of me.

Those were not my husband's eyes.

But I wasn't gonna give up on him.

Jay.

Jay, look at me.

Come on!

Where are you? What's wrong with you?

Just talk to me. Please!

Marie?

Jay?

(SOLEMN MUSIC)

Held me for the first time for a very long time.

That hug was almost like the warmth.

Like I was freezing cold for so long and then all the sudden, I had that warmth wrap around me.

I could've lost the best thing that ever happened to me.

Had I lost her, my mind would've been completely gone.

I wouldn't... would have never been normal again.

Honestly, today, I feel that there's still a part of me that's still in that jail.

A part that will never be released.

Do I ever think we was really a sergeant in real life?

Hell no, I don't think he was a real sergeant in real life.

I think it was just a demon in disguise.

(EERIE MUSIC)