WAYMART, Pa. — Thirteen years after Federal Correctional Officer Eric Williams was killed by an inmate at U.S. Penitentiary Canaan, his father continues to push for staffing and workplace protections he believes could prevent another officer’s death.
Eric Williams, 34, was working alone and unarmed in a housing unit containing approximately 125 high-security inmates on Feb. 25, 2013, when he was repeatedly stabbed by inmate Jessie Con-Ui.
According to a prosecution summary of surveillance footage reported by The Citizens’ Voice, Con-Ui was “lying in wait” near a stairway before kicking Williams in the face and knocking him down the stairs. He then chased Williams, pinned him to the floor and took away his radio before repeatedly stabbing him.
The attack lasted approximately nine minutes. During it, Con-Ui stopped to rinse a cut on his hand and wrap it in his shirt before returning to continue stabbing Williams, prosecutors said. The footage also showed Con-Ui stomping on Williams, kicking him and slamming his head against the concrete floor.
After throwing Williams’ radio at his head and kicking him once more in the face, Con-Ui returned to his cell and closed the door, according to prosecutors. Williams remained on the floor “barely alive” for another 22 minutes before other correctional officers reached him.
According to the Department of Justice, Con-Ui stabbed Williams with a sharpened weapon more than 200 times. Con-Ui, who was already serving a life sentence for murder, was later convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to another life term. He is currently held at ADX Florence.
That night, Don and Jean Williams learned of their son’s death when USP Canaan’s warden and two officers arrived at their home.
“The trauma of that moment cannot be adequately expressed in words,” Don Williams said in a statement to Corrections1.
In a video produced by AFGE Local 4070, Williams described the night Eric was killed and the troubling details he learned afterward.
“I thought my head would explode,” he said. “I couldn’t believe what I heard.”
Williams said Bureau of Prisons officials initially told the family that the attack was unusual because Con-Ui had no history of disciplinary problems. He said he later learned through news reports that Con-Ui had an extensive record and was supposed to have been housed in the prison’s Special Housing Unit, commonly known as the SHU, when Eric was killed.
“I couldn’t believe this,” he said.
In the years since Eric’s death, his family has worked with the American Federation of Government Employees’ Council of Prison Locals 33, which represents federal prison employees, to advocate for improved staffing and additional safety equipment.
The family also formed an advocacy organization, formerly known as Voices of JOE, to support efforts to improve conditions for federal correctional officers.
One of those efforts led to the passage of the Eric Williams Correctional Officer Protection Act. Signed into law in 2016, the measure authorized the Bureau of Prisons to issue pepper spray to officers and employees at medium- and high-security federal prisons.
Williams said the law represented progress, but he believes the broader staffing problems that placed his son in danger have not been resolved.
“What has been the result of those thirteen years?” Williams said. “Too often, the answer has been unfulfilled promises, manipulated statistics, significant staffing cuts and a continued failure to correct the underlying problem.”
Williams said he has been told that staffing levels across the federal prison system are now lower than they were when Eric was killed.
“That reality makes our family feel as though Eric’s death counted for nothing,” he said. “It is unacceptable.”
Williams’ latest appeal also comes after the Bureau of Prisons terminated its collective bargaining agreement with CPL-33 in September 2025. BOP Director William K. Marshall III said at the time that the agreement had slowed or prevented changes intended to improve safety, morale and working conditions.
Union leaders disputed that characterization, arguing that the agreement gave employees a voice in addressing staffing shortages, unsafe conditions, mandatory overtime and other workplace concerns.
CPL-33 filed a lawsuit seeking to restore the agreement. In April, a federal judge denied the Bureau of Prisons’ motion to dismiss the case, allowing the union’s challenge to continue.
Williams said the loss of collective bargaining protections leaves correctional officers more vulnerable to mandatory overtime and augmentation, a practice in which employees assigned to other prison jobs are used to fill correctional posts.
He is calling on lawmakers, correctional families and members of the public to support the restoration of the CPL-33 Master Agreement and press for staffing levels that allow federal prisons to operate safely.
“Where does that leave us?” Williams said. “It leaves corrections officers subject to mandatory assignments and augmentation to the point of exhaustion, with increased risk to their safety.”
