Fallen Angels: When Female Prison Workers Go Bad

So you've most likely been familiar with this current story by now. The news broke over the last weekend of April 2022 that Casey White, a convicted murderer, had gone missing after escaping from a Lauderdale County, Alabama prison. Also missing is one of the prison's jailers, Vicky White (no relation), and like many who heard about this news story when it first hit, I thought, "It may come out that she's in on it." Sure enough, a few days after the news first broke, that's exactly what happened, as it was on Monday, May 2 that we heard the added development that Vicky helped Casey escape from prison.

More details have come out since then, with the main one revealing that there was some sort of relationship between Vicky and Casey. There were talks of extra attention from Vicky to Casey, which included Vicky delivering extra meal portions to Casey. Vicky had worked for the county sheriff's office for 25 years and had filed for retirement on Thursday, April 28. On the day in question, Vicky claimed that she was taking Casey for a mental evaluation, which originally consists of two guards accompanying Casey. Vicky had an answer: her partner was out sick, but there was another hole in her claim--Casey had no evaluation scheduled for that day. Regarding Casey's crimes, he was serving 75 years for the attempted murder of an ex-girlfriend of his, and he was facing charges in the murder of Connie Ridgeway in 2015.

Regarding Vicky herself, personal details reveal that she's widowed; her husband passed away in January of this year. According to her ex-mother-in-law, Vicky had plenty of money stashed, so there's no financial reasoning. So all we have are clear signs of a possible romantic relationship, but at the moment, there seems to be no clear and outright motive for Vicky White's heel turn. However, this case does remind this true crime enthusiast of a pair of similar stories of female prison workers turning to the dark side.

Perhaps the most notorious case in this category was the one involving Joyce Mitchell, a seamstress at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. On June 6, 2015, Joyce assisted in the escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from the prison, as she had provided the proper tools to the men to facilitate their escape. This led to a nationwide manhunt that lasted 22 days and actually ended with Matt shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent, while Sweat was recaptured. The investigation did uncover Joyce's role in the escape, and she was arrested and convicted that year; she was released on February 6, 2020. There were rumors that Joyce engaged in sexual trysts with both men; claims that Joyce vehemently denied.

On March 20, 2017, Lifetime aired New York Prison Break: The Seduction of Joyce Mitchell, which starred Penelope Ann Miller as Joyce Mitchell. A year later, Showtime aired Escape at Dannemora, a seven-part miniseries about the event, and in that regard, Patricia Arquette played Joyce Mitchell. This was not the first time each actress played a notorious real-life villainess; Penelope Ann Miller also played disgraced teacher/molester Mary Kay LeTourneau in a TV movie, and Patricia Arquette played Dee Dee Blanchard, the infamous Munchausen by Proxy mother, in Hulu's The Act in 2019.

Another case predates both stories, and the central villainess behind this twisted tale is Pamela Dickens. Pamela Dickens worked at the Colorado Territorial Corrections Facility as a corrections officer, and was married to Timothy Dickens, who worked at the same facility as a prison guard. However, Pamela turned heel during the summer of 2003, doing so by engaging in an affair with one of the prison's inmates, Rick Hampton, who was set to be released on parole in two years. Hampton's plan for life out of jail involved starting a roofing business, and regarding Pamela, she wanted in, and decided to have her husband killed to fund their goal.

Timothy's insurance policy was worth $250,000, but in a meeting with Hampton, Pamela responded to her lover's wish that the policy was more lucrative by boasting that she managed to have the policy quadrupled to a full million. Pamela also mention her and Timothy's two children, and regarding how they would process their father's sudden death, the cold-blooded villainess uttered the following four words:

"They'll get over it."

Unbeknownst to Pamela, her conversation with Hampton was recorded, as her bosses suspected the affair and the plot, leading to Hampton being used as an informant. Pamela met with the hitman, only to reveal himself as an undercover officer who would arrest Pamela for her scheme. She was convicted in December 2003, and was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was released on July 29, 2015--six years after husband Timothy Dickens passed away from pancreatic cancer.

The three stories I've mentioned are all fascinating in their own way. We will definitely find out more details about Vicky White and her sudden turn into a criminal villainess as the days go by. I haven't watched either televised retelling of the Joyce Mitchell tale, but I do know it was a wild one full of so much speculation and rumors. As for Pamela Dickens, this was cut and dry. Pamela Dickens was a villainess who had no regard for anything other than her own greed and desires; her response regarding her children proved that. Overall, these three tales do share one big trait: all of them involved opportunistic moral corruption from members of law enforcement.