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NANTICOKE — Often Don Williams is alone when he visits the memorial where a plaque hangs for his son Eric, a federal corrections officer killed in the line of duty two years ago.
Saturday Williams attracted a crowd to the Walk of Honor on the campus of Luzerne County Community College as he awarded scholarships in memory of his son.
“It’s become one of my favorite spots,” Williams, 62, of Nanticoke confided to the crowd of approximately 50 people. “I come up here and spend a little private time with that plaque on a pretty frequent basis. “
The site was close to the course of the Eric Williams Race for Justice, held May 16 at the school and 11 other locations around the country, to raise scholarship funds and awareness of the problems the men and women working in prisons face each day.
The four-member team from U.S. Penitentiary Lewisburg recorded the fastest time from the dozen races and received the top prize of a $5,000 scholarship. Derek Waughen, Jason Fink, Douglas Maiorana and Brandon Pealer, also members of the prison’s Special Operations Response Team, designated Mansfield University as the recipient of the scholarship for criminal justice and law enforcement students.
Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Brian Paul received a $1,000 scholarship and he designated Misericordia University as the recipient. Luzerne County Councilwoman Linda Houck announced a $1,000 would be added to the Eric Williams scholarship at the community college.
It’s the Williams family’s hope that when those students graduate and begin to work in their fields, whether it be as a police or corrections officer, they have the training, equipment and laws in place to protect them. Eric Williams, 34, had only handcuffs, keys and a radio and was the only corrections officer working a cell block at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Wayne County when he was killed Feb. 25, 2013. A federal grand jury indicted inmate Jesse Con-Ui on first-degree murder charges in June 2013. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case scheduled for trial in July 2016.
U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, has been working with Williams to see more protections are in place in prisons. He said the slain corrections officer will be remembered as a good friend, someone devoted to his family and enthusiastic about his law enforcement career.
“His stature is one of the reasons his tragic death has lasting meaning and cause for everyone who cares about prison safety,” Cartwright said.
The congressman said with the aid of U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Scranton, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons has extended a pilot program allowing corrections officers and staff to carry pepper spray in all medium- and high-security prisons.
Cartwright said he and other lawmakers in January reintroduced the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act that would permanently authorize correctional workers “routinely to carry pepper spray” in all medium- and high-security prisons.
Williams credited state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, for his role in having the plaque installed . Yudichak paid tribute to the family’s efforts to make positive changes out of their own tragedy.
“Eric Williams is home here in Nanticoke. He’s home here on the hallowed ground of the Walk of Honor. The lives of heroes like Eric Williams reaffirm my belief that life is a gift and to appreciate that gift we must be willing to serve others,” Yudichak said.
Parallel to the federal legislation the Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed a bill of rights for corrections officer, Yudichak added.
Another bill is making its way through the legislature to name a bridge in Slocum Township for Eric Williams. He’d bought a house there, said state Rep. Gerald Mullery, D-Newport Township.
Mullery told the audience that he frequently travels Prospect Street that runs by the memorial and sees people there at all hours, including Williams.
“I can verify that Don is here,” he said. The site is used for what it was designed for, worship, reflection and honor, Mullery said.
Speaking for thousands of his fellow corrections employees, Shane Fausey, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 4047 at Federal Correctional Institution Allenwood, thanked the lawmakers. Fausey delivered a special tribute to Don and Jean Williams and their family.
“The undying fortitude and effort that him, his wife and his entire family have dedicated to protect 38,000 strangers is very humbling; strangers that are now part of the family. For that I truly, I thank you with my life Don. You have made a difference. Eric made a difference,” Fausey said.