Once a year or so, usually during sweeps week, one local TV station or another will run a story with the headline CONVICTED FELONS HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION!!!!
Well, it’s true enough, but it ain’t exactly news.
Over 35 years ago, when I was a service engineer for 3M, one of my customers was the section of Ellis Unit, northeast of Huntsville, where prisoners transferred all sorts of state documents to microfilm. I was responsible for repair and maintenance of a bank of microfilm cameras, and a bunch of microfilm reader/printers they used.
There was a department of corrections civilian employee who was theoretically in charge of the operation, but all of the actual supervision was done by an inmate I’ll call Jerry.
I considered Jerry to be one of my very best customers. He kept all the equipment spotless, did most minor repairs, and only called me when there was something seriously wrong. If all my customers had been as conscientious as Jerry, my life would have been a dream.
I had been dealing with Jerry for a couple years when I arrived one day to find that he wasn’t around. I asked Fred, the TDC employee, and he said Jerry was at a parole hearing.
He added “I hope he gets out, but I’m really going to hate to see him go. I may actually have to start working for a living.”
I told him how much I had enjoyed working with Jerry as well, and then I asked “What was he in for, anyway?”
“Murder.”
“MURDER?”
“Look,” he said, “I’d a thousand to one rather have a murderer working for me than a thief. Most times, murder is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and they’re sorry as soon as they do it, but a thief, you never can trust the son of a bitch.”
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