I had been on the job for 6 months and felt that I was finally getting the hang of working in a prison, but then things are not always as they seem. I was called up to the counter to help an inmate and after a few basic routine questions went back to my desk. Soon I realized my pen was missing, damn where did I put that thing? The pen was one of my favorites from home and I loved the way it wrote so smoothly. I decided to check up at the counter, maybe I had taken it up there, but no pen. I wasn’t sure what to say or do. Do I confront them or let it slide? Is it worth making a stink about or do I just lose the pen? Deciding it was worth trying to get back, I called out "OK, who took the pen from the counter?" Dead silence, no one was going to confess or snitch on the guy next to him. So, I went back to work at my desk, bemoaning the fact that now I would have to write with a crappy ballpoint pen. A short time later I heard snickering coming from the table across the room and looked toward the laughter, spotting my pen on the counter. I wasn’t sure where it had come from, but decided to confront the guy with the loudest snicker, "Did you take the pen?" and his response was the biggest surprise of the day, "No lady. I’m not a thief, I’m a murderer." Story as told by Jeannie Remillard, now a 17 year veteran.