In the News

Don and Jean Williams, who frequently visit their murdered son’s grave, know an extra $180 million for the federal prison system won’t bring him back.

The Nanticoke couple hopes the money means someone else’s son doesn’t end up like Eric Williams, a corrections officer stabbed and beaten to death by an inmate almost 10 years ago at the federal prison at Canaan in Wayne County.

The money, intended to hire new federal corrections officers and retain current ones nationwide, could “save someone’s life or save them from serious injury,” Don Williams said Friday.

The Williamses and officials from the Canaan prison’s corrections officers union celebrated and thanked U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright for getting the new money appropriated at a news conference he hosted outside his downtown office.