The Bad Nurse (9 page)

CHAPTER 35

B
y the time that Karri Willoughby donned the coarse, baggy white shirt and pants of a Tutwiler inmate and was assigned to a dorm, some conditions had begun to improve slightly and several of the recommendations had at least been started. The installation of surveillance cameras was the most obvious improvement. Incredibly, there had been only three cameras in the entire prison prior to the investigative reports, a situation that was unacceptable.

The plan was eventually to have more than three hundred cameras in place throughout the prison, and many have already been installed in the dining hall, main hall, dormitories, and several other common areas. The cameras would help to eliminate blind spots and provide evidence during investigations. The Tutwiler camera installation project would also serve as a model for other state prisons, and policies were being put into place for management of the cameras and training of employees who would be using the system.

After a shower renovation project was completed, privacy doors were installed in the shower rooms that allowed more privacy for the prisoners while still maintaining security requirements.

A new infirmary and receiving unit was planned, with completion set for October 2015. It is set to have sixty receiving beds, twenty-four infirmary beds, and health care providing dental services, dialysis, hospice care, and four negative pressure cells for infectious diseases. A controversial HIV-POSITIVE isolation dorm at the prison had already been shut down.

Additional recreational space had been planned, but not yet implemented. Several areas within the prison were being used for recreational areas; and if the crowding is alleviated, prison officials say that one of the dorms may be repurposed for recreation.

More female corrections officers are being recruited, and several have already been hired. Showers are being stopped fifteen minutes prior to a walk-through head count, to prevent inmates from being viewed by guards during showers or using the toilet.

Despite the reforms that were getting under way, food quality in the prison remained an issue. One inmate, who worked in the kitchen, reported that some boxes that came in containing dry beans and peas were marked “unfit for human consumption” and were riddled with worms. Women would dump their trays of food into the trash when they were served the wormy vegetables. The kitchen worker also claimed that donations of fresh fruits and vegetables went to staff members' homes instead of being prepared and served to the inmates.

“The staff would go through all that stuff and take what they wanted first,” the inmate claimed. “If there was anything left, somebody might get it.”

Another woman, a worker in the infirmary, said that although she admitted that prison was not meant to be a pleasant experience, she believed that the inmates at Tutwiler deserved much better than they had gotten for so many decades. They were not meant to have to worry constantly about guards watching them in the showers or on the toilets, or coughing for days without getting medical attention.

“They're paying for their crimes,” the woman said. “It's not meant to be the Hilton, but you still shouldn't have to take a freezing cold shower in the dead of winter, be able to have more than one blanket, be able to eat something besides food that's not even fit to make dog food out of.”

CHAPTER 36

T
here were pages of rules and regulations in the official handbook for female inmates issued by the ADOC. If Karri Willoughby's behavior in the DeKalb County Jail was any indication, she was likely to be very dissatisfied with some of them. For example, while Karri was in the jail, she had been threatened with loss of visitation for refusing to cut her hair. It was longer than shoulder-length when she left the jail en route to Tutwiler, but things would be very different there.

Inmate's hair must be well-groomed,
the handbook said.
Hair must be worn in proper style for health, identification and security reasons. Hair length must not reach beyond the collar of uniform shirt. You are not allowed to change your hair color except to let it return to its natural color. Inmates are not allowed to shave their heads.

The regulations on hair length were not likely to sit well with Karri, with little variation of styles possible. There would also be only the most basic toiletries and hair products available. Name brands would be a thing of the past.

Necessary toilet articles will be supplied at institutions or you can purchase items from the canteen so that you can maintain a neat and clean appearance,
the handbook stated.

Your outer clothing will be exchanged on a regular basis as established in each institution. Clean shirts and trousers will be issued in exchange for your dirty ones. When your shoes need replacing, make your request to the supervisor on duty. All clothing is marked with indelible markings. When your job makes it necessary for you to wear special types of additional clothing, it will be marked and assigned to you,
the handbook outlined.

Another regulation that was likely to be vexing to Karri was the state policy on Internet presence for inmates:
You are not allowed to participate in any form of social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) while incarcerated in any ADOC facility.

And given Karri's fondness for banking matters:
You are not allowed to possess a credit card, debit card or prepaid card. You are not allowed to transfer or direct the transfer of funds to other inmates. Funds outside your [personal canteen account] must be administered by someone outside the institution that you have given power of attorney.

Medical information was given to all incoming inmates, but the amount and quality of health care likely varied from one institution to another. According to the handbook,
During the new arrival medical, dental and mental health intake process at the ADOC reception institution
(Tutwiler is the state's reception institution for all female prisoners regardless of their later assignment),
you will be provided an ADOC health, dental, and mental health services in greater detail. Items such as how to file a health services grievance or grievance appeal form if necessary, how to request routine sick call services, chronic care clinics conducted, periodic physical examinations completed, etc.

One of the most galling regulations for Karri might well have been the fact that she would not be allowed to communicate with Nathan Wilder, her love interest from the DeKalb County Jail. Wilder is currently serving a twenty-year sentence at the Limestone Correctional Facility in northwest Alabama, and letters back and forth in the jail had been one of Karri's favorite avocations. That was not to be permitted in Tutwiler:

CHAPTER 37

V
isitation could very well be another sore point for Karri.

Rules for visiting the prison were very strict, and it is a very long drive from Ider to Wetumpka. Whether or not Jason Willoughby would bring the children such a long distance to visit their mother in the dismal atmosphere of Tutwiler remained to be seen.

Prisoners were allowed visits only from those people they had named on their visitation list: eight adults and eight minor children. For each child, the inmate would have to complete a “Request for Minor Children to Visit” form. Only four adults and four children could visit on each occasion, and children would have to be accompanied by an approved immediate family member on the active visitation list. Visitors must submit to a search, and vehicles entering the prison grounds would also be subject to being searched.

Special visits are allowed for immediate family members not on the visitation list but who live over five hundred miles from the prison. One special visit is allowed every six months if approved by the warden.

It remained to be seen if Jason Willoughby would be willing for his children to make the long trip to Wetumpka to visit their mother inside the prison, but there were programs available that might prove beneficial for Karri. Of course, that is, if she maintained a good conduct record and cooperated with the prison officials.

In 1987, Church Women United, the Alabama Prison Project, the Alabama Department of Corrections, and an array of dedicated volunteers designed and established a project to help incarcerated women have relationships with their children. The group had discovered that many of the women in prison never saw their children because the guardians were unwilling or unable to bring them to the prison.

The group established a network of churches across the state that provided drivers and vans to pick up children and drive them to Wetumpka each month so they could have a three-hour visit with their mothers in the prison chapel. The program has been a success, with over a hundred children spending time with their mothers each month.

The Aid to Inmate Mothers (AIM) program also offers classes for education and rehabilitation, which includes Parenting Education, Life Skills, Anger Management, Domestic Violence Education, Rape Survivors Groups, Job Readiness, HIV Prevention Education, and Women's Health Education.

One of AIM's most popular programs is also one of their newest and most successful. The Storybook Project gives inmates the opportunity to record themselves reading a bedtime story to their children, which is then mailed out to them. This provides an additional way of connecting mothers and children.

AIM also provides a service they call Project Reconnect, a reentry program to assist inmates who leave the prison. It provides clothing and hygiene articles and job search assistance, as well as other social services, to help inmates who are being released to transition from prison life and adjust to life in the community.

AIM has also opened a group home, called the AIM Service Center, which provides living space for ten women being released from custody. It affords the women a structured environment and case management to help them as they transition back into the community.

It would be quite some time before Karri Willoughby would need to be concerned about returning to the free world, since her release date is set for May 6, 2030. It is unlikely she will be leaving prison any sooner than that, since Billy Shaw's family has vowed to do everything possible to see to it that she will serve her entire sentence with no parole. But in the meantime, some of the programs that will be available to her during her incarceration may help her to lead a more productive life.

CHAPTER 38

K
arri Willoughby's transfer from the DeKalb County Jail to Tutwiler Prison for Women had taken place without incident, once Karri had made her red-carpet-like walk from her cell to the transport vehicle, but her time in the spotlight was far from over.

Within a couple of months following her confession of murder, her sister, Kim Dalton, decided to make sure that there was no possible way that Karri could find a way to wrangle any financial profits from the death of Billy Shaw. Kim retained two highly capable attorneys from Fort Payne—Robert Wilson and Nikki Scott—and filed a lawsuit against Karri in the circuit court of DeKalb County asking for punitive damages, saying that Karri's wrongful actions had caused Shaw's death.

The lawsuit (for $10 million, plus court costs) was filed against Karri and several other unnamed defendants to make sure that they would never profit from Shaw's death. It sought to prevent Karri from making any kind of money, listing such potential vehicles as:
movie, book, magazine article, radio presentation, television presentation, live entertainment of any kind, or from the expression of her thoughts, feelings, opinions or emotions regarding such crime.

According to state law, any such profits made by the perpetrator of a crime would have to be paid to the Alabama Board of Adjustment, which would then deposit the funds in an escrow account for the victims of the crime. Failure to pay all such money to the Board of Adjustment on behalf of the victims would result in the perpetrator being charged with a felony, and sentenced to from one to ten years in prison and a fine equal to the amount of the money earned that had not been given to the Board of Adjustment as required by law.

The unnamed defendants, designated as Defendants A through E, were:
[people who] participated in or were accomplices in the murder of Billy Shaw and whose correct legal names are not known at this time, but will be supplemented when ascertained.

Kim said there was no greed involved in her decision to file the lawsuit, and said that she realized that there would not be any kind of monetary settlement. She only wanted to make sure that there was no way Karri could make any sort of profit from her stepfather's murder. Kim had learned, she said, of a phone call that had been recorded at the county jail in which Karri and Jason had talked about which actors they would like to play them in a movie about the crime. This was enough to convince Kim that if Karri had the opportunity to cash in on Shaw's murder in any way, she'd jump at the chance. That, Kim said, was why she had decided to go ahead and file the lawsuit.

“There is no money there, and there will never be any money there,” Kim said. “I don't want any money. I want my mother and stepdad's estate to be taken care of in a way that would be pleasing to them.”

Kim said that she wanted to be sure that Karri's part of the estate would revert to her two children when they became old enough to deal responsibly with their inheritance.