to work. that s all i know. i mean, this is what i know. my fate s real, you know. if i get out this time, god only knows what will happen. i ll more than likely be back. because brushy mountain is an intake and processing center for tennessee s prison system, dikes, like most of the inmates, eventually transfers to other facilities. i was 18 years old some, like brian lautenslager, are part of a permanent population slated to serve their entire sentences at brushy. i ve been in prison all together 18 years. i come in when i was 18, got out at 24, came back at 25, now i m 36. going on 37. lautenslager is serving a 90-year sentence for robbery and criminal intent to commit murder. this is a song i wrote a few years ago.
the brushy mountain correctional complex is one of the oldest prisons in tennessee. its roots in this rural section of the state run deep. brushy mountain is in my blood. i ve been around it my whole life. my father used to bring me up here at 4 or 5 years old to get a haircut back when it was a full max institution. my grandfather, father and uncle and my husband have all worked here. i mean, you ve got just family members and cousins and dads and brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles. it s a part of our everyday life. the roots run equally as deep for some of the inmates. everybody in my family has been through this place. brothers, cousins, uncles, grandfathers, fathers. they have all been through here. this is charles dikes fourth time in prison. he s facing five years for auto theft.
to escape than stay here. brushy mountain has had a long history of attempted escapes. and i guess this would be the most maximum security penitentiary in the state. michael king, serving a life sentence for murder, managed to break out of another tennessee prison in 1994. i escaped from a secure compound, northeast correctional. i packed myself up in some boxes and shipped myself out. i was part of a warehouse crew. i ve taken yoga for several years, and i just squeezed myself in there. very cramped position. brought some water with me and everything else. about an hour and a half before they shipped me out, they put me in the back of the truck. then they took me to north carolina. they caught me while i was trying to get out of the truck. king was sent to brushy mountain s max unit. this is supposed to be the most secure building in the state. and that s why they house them
so 99 times out of 100, it might give us a false indication. but the one time we do find a cell phone, you know, it will all have been worth it. with the death of officer morgan, brushy mountain staff are always on high alert. we was security-minded anyways, but i look harder. we all look harder. if we see anything whatsoever funny, that inmate is not going out. and everybody knows there may be something up. morgan s fellow officers still think about him every day. he was a good one. you know, he s watching over all of us, and he s going to make sure that everything is all right. and we loved him, and he loved all of us, so we know he s here because we can still feel him in our hearts.
if somebody who commits premeditated first-degree murder tells you they have remorse, they are a liar. how are you going to be remorseful about something you intended to do? i lived my whole life as a criminal. i just finished a 12-year sentence in the northeast. i wasn t out a month and got new charges. i escaped from a secure compound, northeast correctional. i packed myself up in some boxes and shipped myself out. i got nothing to lose. they would rather die trying to escape than stay here. from. best thing to do, keep your eyes open. all facilities working at all times. because anything can happen at any time. if we see anything whatsoever funny, that inmate s not going out. we don t want what happened to one of the best officers here to happen to somebody else. the brushy mountain correctional complex in eastern tennessee serves a unique purpose in the state s prison system. for first-time inmates, it s often just a point of entry. for the most violent prisoners, it