Rioting Inmates Rape 20

Congolese Prison Break Fails, Prisoners Rape 20 Women Inmates

From the Democratic Republic of Congo:

Rioting inmates raped 20 female prisoners during a failed prison break in Democratic Republic of Congo's central prison in Goma, capital of the eastern border province of North Kivu.
Two people were killed and 12 others were injured when prisoners detonated two grenades inside the prison during an overnight escape attempt that began late Sunday.

Congolese police and military surrounded the prison, which holds a number of rebel and militia fighters, soon after the riots began. No prisoners escaped.

The United Nations blames a growing wave of attempted jail breaks and mutinies on a lack of food and access to healthcare in Congo's prison system.


Inmates Snitch on Escape Plan

Adapted from the Daily World, Indiana:

Criminal charges have been filed against two inmates in connection with an ongoing escape attempt that was discovered last month. Brian Ashcraft, 36, and Scott Sozzi, 21, have been charged in Greene Superior Court with two counts of criminal mischief – Class A and B misdemeanors.

The alleged escape plot was discovered on May 26 when the jail commander was told by an inmate that he heard water running behind the C-Block wall. Jail commander Darren McDonald found a broken waterline going to the B-Block downstairs shower leaking badly with part of a bed sheet wrapped around the leak, the shower cover plate tied in place with a strip of cloth, part of a shower panel broke off, and the remaining cover plate badly damaged.

The shower plate mounting bolts were torn loose, and the cloth strip holding the cover plate in place. A piece of angle iron approximately 24 inches long was found laying on the mechanical room floor. This is not a tool kept in that room. The ends of this angle iron were found to be bent, leading to the belief that the iron was used to break the shower plate loose in B-Block.

Investigators say the inmates exerted some physical labor to remove the shower cover plate. The removal of the plate cover would allow access to a hole approximately 9 5/8 inches by 16 1/4 inches through the concrete block wall and into the mechanical room.

Once inside the mechanical room, inmates Ashcraft and Sozzi could have opened the door and walked out of the jail.




Jailed Man Produces a Handgun, Attempts Escape

Adapted from Florida media:

Sometime before 7:20 p.m. Monday, Osceola jail inmate Angel Santiago pulled out a gun from his clothing and threatened to kill a corrections officer escorting him back to his cell, according to the sheriff's spokeswoman Twis Lizasuain.

Santiago, 28, forced the officer into a medical bay and ordered the man to exchange uniforms with Santiago so his hostage looked like an inmate and Santiago looked like a guard, according to a report of the incident.

Confronted by other officers who came to their colleague's rescue, Santiago fought back until he was disarmed. The freed officer said Santiago had threatened to "blow my head off," the report stated.

How Santiago obtained a loaded handgun remained unanswered Tuesday as sheriff's officials investigated the attempted jailbreak.

Santiago is currently serving two life sentences over shooting a robbery victim in the stomach that he had threatened to kill. On Tuesday, he was in the Osceola County Jail awaiting trial and a possible third life sentence for armed robbery, records show.


That's all for now. See you when there is another escape.

Inmate Runs, Still Running

Adapted from KOMU-TV, Missouri:

Cops and deputies continue their search for escapee, 31-year-old Curtis Jones, who walked out of the Howard County Jail Sunday night. Trackers are moving across the county trying to find him.

The escape happened around 1 a.m. when inmate Curtis Jones pulled an old jail trick: He jammed the lock with the cardboard from a roll of toilet paper and while the guards were away, he slipped right out.

This wasn't Jones' first break-out. He escaped from the old Fayette jail in 1996. Curtis Jones was imprisoned for multiple counts of theft.

The convict is a white male with a shaved head. Jones was last spotted in Fayette riding a red bicycle and wearing orange jumpsuit pants, a red shirt and red flip-flops.

Monday night, the Howard County Sheriff's Department disclosed that they found Jones' clothes and bike, but did not say where.

If they dressed me like that I’d escape too, if only for a change of clothes., The only jail uniform worse than this is at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Tent City lockup in Phoenix, where the residents wear the traditional horizontal black-and-white broad stripes over pink underwear. It irks the prisoners even more than the all-bologna-sandwich diet.

Guards find Unauthorized Egress

Adapted from KSWT-13 television news, Yuma, Arizona:

Over the weekend correction officers at the Imperial County Jail, El Centro, California, found a 2 1/2 foot hole in the roof covered up with a plaster finish. It was located where the inmates were housed.

The guards say some inmates broke a drain pipe and used it to break the roof. They were reportedly going to escape through the air ducts.

Responding to the find, corrections officers moved eight inmates from minimum to maximum security. Three of those inmates are being charged with attempted escape.

Because they were federal inmates, the investigation is now in the hands of the U.S. Marshals.

Inmate Runs Out Front Door

Adapted from WAFB television news, Louisiana:

Hours after his escape, a Livingston Parish inmate is back in custody.

Early Monday morning, 31-year-old Jared Federic sat in a booking room at the jail waiting to be taken back to his cell. A few hours later, authorities say, Frederic climbed through the ceiling, down into the lobby, and ran out the front door.

Officers from a number of agencies barricaded the surrounding area.

Frederic was at the Livingston jail after being arrested Monday morning. He was at large then because on Friday night the jail had erroneously released him while he was serving time on a drug charge.

"To tell a man he's free and then come home to his kids and then they put him back in? That would mess anybody's mind up," said Frederic’s fiancé, Deona Chandler.

After almost four hours at large, Federic was captured just a few miles from where he escaped.

Federic now faces a whole new set of charges, including escape. Authorities say it could land him in jail for up to five years.

Inmates Brought Down From the Ceiling

Adapted from the Terre Haute TribStar, Indiana:

Two inmates were discovered in the ceiling of the Vigo County Jail about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, according to Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Jake Compton, who acknowledged the inmates were most likely trying to escape.

The inmates allegedly forced a section of the jail ceiling up in the jail’s M-Block and tried to climb through metal spacings, Compton said.

Anthony Cross, one of the inmates allegedly in the ceiling, became “very aggressive and combative” with jail personnel during the recapture process and would not come down. A struggle ensued, leaving officers with scratches and bruises and Cross with a possible broken jaw. Compton said Cross’s injuries are “unfortunate.”

Cross is “a violent offender” in jail facing charges for multiples offenses, including receiving stolen property, probation violation, false reporting, driving while suspended, robbery and carjacking. He was in custody in lieu of a total $110,000 cash bond.

His next court date was scheduled for July 14.

Cross was transported to Union Hospital and then Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis before returning to the jail.

Dayton, Texas, Escape is Foiled

Adapted from Texas media:

Jarrod Wayne Gee, 31, a federal prisoner being housed in Liberty County Jail, attempted a jail-break in the early morning hours of Sunday, June 14, but he was captured before he could make it off jail property.

The attempted escape was first reported at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, June 14.

Gee gained access to a ‘pipe chase,’ which is an area used to access water and sewer pipes. In order to get to that area, Gee reportedly climbed through a hole in a sheet metal wall in his jail cell. Gee claims he cut through the 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick steel wall by using blades from disposable razors and pencil sharpeners.

Authorities are skeptical of his story.

Around the time that Gee had gained access to the pipe chase, Correctional Officer David Trahan was called to that area of the jail by another inmate regarding a clogged water pipe.

As Trahan opened the door to check the pipe, Gee jumped out on him. A scuffle ensued and Trahan dropped his hand-held radio. Gee ran to the control room.

Gee was attempting to open the doors when Trahan caught up with him. A struggle ensued again.
At that time an unnamed female officer called for the dispatcher to send assistance.

Gee broke loose from Trahan again and ran to the sally port area, which is where officers load and unload prisoners.

Gee reportedly manually opened the rolling doors to escape.

As he crawled under the door, officers from the Liberty Police Department, Liberty County Sheriff’s Office and troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety arrived, ending the escape attempt

Three correctional officers for Community Education Centers, the jail contractor, have been suspended pending further investigation.

According to LCSO Chief Deputy Ken Defoor, there were some doors that appear to have been left unlocked.

Don’t you hate it when inmates jump out of the wall at you?

This is enough for me. I will blog again the next time someone bolts for freedom.

Alleged Killer Recaptured! (as of 4 a.m. 22 June, 2009

Louisiana Manhunt Ends Escapee’s Run 6 Miles From Jail

Adapted from Times Picayune:

A footprint in a rural area near Covington High School put St. Tammany Parish deputies on the trail of accused killer Timothy Wayne Murray, the last of four inmates who escaped the parish jail Thursday.

Deputies found Murray at about 1 a.m. Sunday in a quarter-mile stretch of woods on Bennett Bridge Road north of Covington, about three miles west of Highway 25, St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain said. Murray had crossed about six miles of woods since his escape Thursday night.

The break-out had apparently been in the works for about a year and Murray and his co-conspirators "nearly starved themselves" so they could fit through a small opening in the maximum security wing and exploit a design flaw in the jail, Strain said.

Authorities said Murray and Jody L. Swafford, who still awaits trial and pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of cocaine possession earlier this year, met Carl Glass Jr. while working on post-Hurricane Katrina debris-removal jobs in the Slidell area.

Glass let them stay in tents in the front yard of his white-frame house, bought debris-removal equipment for them and hired them for jobs because they said they had come to the area to help with rebuilding efforts, authorities and Glass family members said.

Glass was beaten and strangled in his home east of Slidell on April 8, 2006. Overturned furniture in the home suggested that the 6-foot-2, 230-pound victim fought against his attackers, but he was beaten so badly that family members could barely identify him, Amy Glass said. Blood covered the walls. The killers left bloody footprints outside.

On April 17, contractor Jody L. Swafford, 29, turned himself in to FBI agents in Tampa, Fla., and reportedly confessed to the killing. Six days later, Murray surrendered to sheriff's deputies in Vance County, N.C.



Inmate Busts Out ...Of a Perimeter Fence…

Adapted from Texas media:

Michael Shawn Littlejohn, 33, an inmate serving a 58-year sentence for armed robbery, escaped from Gaston Correctional Center Saturday morning. Littlejohn, climbed a perimeter fence at the minimum-security men's prison shortly before 8 a.m., Saturday according to Administrator M.L. Paysour.

Littlejohn is a black man standing 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing about 158 pounds. In 1994, Littlejohn was convicted in Lincoln County of armed robbery, larceny, assault with a deadly weapon on government officials or employees and escaping from jail, state correction records show. He previously served a year and four months in prison for Lincoln County convictions of felony breaking and entering and larceny.

His 58-year sentence began in April 1994, but he had been accepted to the state's Mutual Agreement Parole Program (MAPP) and had a projected release date of 2011. MAPP requires inmates to complete structured activities in order to win early release.

Littlejohn would have to serve the remainder of his original sentence if captured, and a judge could increase that sentence.


Short but to the point today. I'll be back with more missing miscreants ...once one of them escapes...

Manhunt for Accused Killer (as of midnight, 20 June 2009)

Parish the Thought: Accused Killers Escape Louisiana Jail

From Louisiana media:

Four men escaped from the St. Tammany Parish Jail Thursday night. Three of the escapees have been recaptured and one is still at large.

Sheriff Jack Strain said Friday afternoon that the search continues for Timothy Murray and warned that residents, particularly those who live north of Covington, should remain vigilant and consider him dangerous.

St. Tammany Parish deputies, police dogs and two helicopters are still searching for Murray near the Covington facility. Law enforcement officers will search for Murray in a ten-mile radius around the St. Tammany jail where he was housed while awaiting trial for murder. Efforts will focus on the less-densely populated areas outside the city, where officials believe Murray is most likely to hide.

Strain asked that residents lock their homes and cars, be aware of their surroundings and call 911 if they see a suspicious person or have questions about police activity in their area.

Murray's three confederates, each charged with offenses related to murder, who escaped from the St. Tammany Parish jail in Covington Thursday night were caught early Friday morning, authorities said.

A helicopter from Livingston Parish, equipped with a thermal-imaging camera, spotted the three men behind the Walgreens on Collins Boulevard about 1:50 a.m. as law enforcement combed the area. They were quickly surrounded, arrested and returned to jail.

The Parish’s initial probe revealed the inmates somehow got their hands on a tool to help them break out, Parish President Kevin Davis said.

The parish president praised the sheriff's office for the way it reacted to the escape and is grateful for help from other agencies.

Man Escapes Ozzie Prison Farm

From Australian media:

Police are searching for an as-yet-unnamed 24-year-old man who escaped from Lotus Glen Correctional Centre in far north Queensland in the early hours of this morning (18 June).

"The man was present at a 12.20 a.m. head count and was not present at a 3.30 a.m. count," a Department of Correctional Services spokesman said.

Officers at Lotus Glen, 20 kilometers north of Atherton, dsay the man had been in jail serving seven months for break and enter offences, and was due to be released in July.

Lotus Glen Correctional Centre houses 115 "open security" classification inmates in a prison farm environment.

18 Bust Out of Honduran Prison

Adapted from Central American Media:

Eighteen reputed “Mara 18” gang members tunneled their way out of a prison in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, Honduran police said. The escape occurred around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Two of the escapees are charged in the 2007 kidnapping of the brother of Tottenham midfielder Wilson Palacios.

Police identified two of the escaped inmates as Elmer Orellana and Alexander Reyes, who are charged in the kidnap-killing of Palacios' brother Edwin.

The Mara 18 street gang has been implicated in kidnapping, extortion, killings and robbery.

Police say the tunnel extended 50 meters (164 feet) from the prisoners’ cell into the bathroom of a nearby house and that the escapees’ associates were waiting for them in getaway vehicles.

The prison is located near downtown San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second-largest city and the country’s business hub.

Police sealed off the prison as prosecutors launched an investigation of the mass jailbreak, the spokesman said.

Escapee From Frontenac Recaptured

From Canadian media:

Andrew John Wood, who escaped from the minimum-security Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ontario last Saturday, has been recaptured. Wood was convicted of murder in the shooting death of a Toronto man in 1989.

Wood, 42, escaped from the minimum-security Frontenac Institution in Kingston last Saturday by just walking away. Police said Wood was arrested Thursday night while in a car with a female driver in South Frontenac Township. Wood was charged with escaping lawful custody.

The unidentified 35-year-old Kingston woman faces charges of breach of trust, obstructing police, accessory after the fact of escape lawful custody and party to the offence of escape lawful custody. Both are to appear in court Friday.

Wood was arrested in February 1989, three days after the body of Robert Ryan Glenn was found face down on an embankment in Milton, Ontario.

Killer Escapes "Jail"

Killer to Canadian Prison: Au Revoir

Adapted from Canadian Media:

Convicted of shooting a Toronto man in 1989, Andrew John Wood simply walked away from the minimum security Frontenac Institution in Kingston, Ontario on June 13. Wood, 42, was discovered missing during an inmate count

Robert Ryan Glenn, 21, was found on the shoulder of a side road in Albion in February 1989. He had been shot in the head “execution style.” Wood was convicted of second-degree murder in Glenn’s death. Wood was serving a life sentence.

Officials are puzzled as to why Wood would risk his parole eligibility, as well as risk losing all the privileges he enjoyed at Frontenac. He was moved to Frontenac because of his good behavior.

Frontenac Institute has a minimum of security guards, no fences, prison walls or guard towers. Frontenac encourages autonomy to prepare inmates for their eventual release back into society.

Unsurprisingly, this is not the first time someone has walked away from Frontenac. In 2007, Robert Ongaro became the 5th person to escape from Frontenac. According to Correctional Service of Canada there were two escapes in 2006. Wood's escape is the first this year from the institution.

“Even though their offence may be severe, through a very careful analysis of each individual case and response to treatment needs, etc., offenders may present over time, less risk to re-offend or a low risk to public safety,” said Holly Knowles, a spokeswoman for Correction Services of Canada.

There was no immediate indication of what triggered the escape and “it would not be fair to speculate,” said Knowles.

Are these Canadians serious? How about, because he wanted to stop being in jail, however humane the “treatment.” Speaking of “treatment,” the only treatment they could give Wood’s victim was an embalming and a dignified funeral.

Lifer Escapes County Jail

Adapted from the Moultrie Observer, Moultrie Georgia:

Members of the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office spent Monday afternoon and evening searching for an inmate who escaped.

CCSO Capt. Julius Cox, operations supervisor, said Anthony Moses Jordan, 31, of Norcross, escaped from the jail about 1:20 p.m. Monday. He had not been caught as of early Monday evening.

Jordan was able to escape when about 20 other inmates began acting like they were going to get into a fight while in the jail yard, Cox said. When a jailer went to break up the fight, which authorities believe was staged, someone helped Jordan climb onto the jail’s roof.

Once on the roof, Cox said Jordan took off his prison jumpsuit, jumped onto the roof of the jail’s control area then leapt onto the ground. One control room operator reported hearing a thump on the roof about the time of Jordan’s escape, and another jailer reported seeing him run through the jail’s parking lot.

Jordan was found guilty of burglary, two counts of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault stemming from a residential burglary in May. He was sentenced to two life sentences in prison plus 20 years on the charges.


Basque Rebels’ Plan to Escape Prison by ‘Copter is Foiled

From Spanish media:

13 June 2009--A plot by Basque separatists, including a would-be assassin of King Juan Carlos, to escape Huelva prison by helicopter and flee into Portugal, has been foiled according to the Interior Ministry.

One of the failed escapees is Jorge Garcia Sertutxa, convicted in 1995 of conspiring to kill King Juan Carlos and sentenced to 109 years in jail. Sertutxa and at least two other prisoners are being interrogated about their involvement in the plot. One of the prisoners' girlfriends and a lawyer from Bilbao are also reported to have been arrested.


That’s all for now. I still can’t believe the Canadians discuss the “treatment” of a murderer as if murder was a sickness and the killer is really a patient --or a victim. Oh well. I will be back when I have more escapes to tell you about.

Walking Away Day, Part 1

Escaped prison inmate captured in South Carolina

Adapted from the SunNews, South Carolina:

A minimum security inmate who walked away from a prison work detail at the Purdue Farms plant in Dillon County, S.C. was arrested early Wednesday in Horry County, according to police.

James Edward McCracken, 41, of Galivants Ferry was arrested without incident about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday near the entrance to Lake Busbee in Conway, police Sgt. Robert Kegler said.

Local police were notified of his escape because he had ties to the area and officers checked several locations in the area where they thought McCracken might be located.

State prison officials said McCracken had been working at Perdue Tuesday afternoon when he simply walked away. McCracken was serving a five-year sentence for second-degree, nonviolent burglary and had been behind bars since March 2008.

Walking Away Day, Part 2

It Just Seemed Like a Nice Day for a Walk

Adapted from Kentucky media:

A Princeton man, Ryan E. Knight, 20, who walked away from a Crittenden County Detention Center work detail Tuesday morning was apprehended in about 45 minutes and now faces a charge of second-degree escape. Also arrested was 18-year-old Sarah C. Sorrells of Eddyville, Kentucky State Police said.

Knight was reportedly participating in a work detail on Crayne Cemetery Road when he simply walked away.

At about 8:35 a.m. Tuesday, KSP Post 2 in Madisonville received word of the escape from jail officials. Several units were dispatched to the area. KSP Commonwealth Vehicle Enforcement Lt. Kevin Rogers, already in the area, located Knight with Sorrells in a vehicle on Crayne Cemetery Road. Both were arrested without incident and lodged in the detention center.

Knight was charged with second-degree escape and theft by unlawfully taking under $300. Sorrells was charged with complicity to escape, second degree.

Walking Away Day, Part 3

Shower, Escape

Adapted from Arkansas media:

Two inmates escaped the Sharp County, Arkansas jail Tuesday night by hiding in the shower, then slipping out the main entrance unnoticed.

The escapees are Mickeal Shaun Painter, 27, who remains at large, and Michael Shawn Lewis, also 27, who was captured Wednesday in Pine Bluff

Painter was awaiting trial on suspicion of residential burglary and theft. Lewis is doing a 32-year bit for fleeing and battery.

Three Burglars Escape From Malawi Prison

Adapted from Nation Online, Malawi:

One convict and two prisoners awaiting sentencing escaped from Nsanje Prison around 9 o’clock Tuesday morning by jumping over a brick wall under construction. This happened just two days after nine prisoners staged a similar attempt at Chichiri Prison in Blantyre.

Deputy commissioner of prisons Tobias Nowa said warders rearrested two of the three fugitives and a manhunt is on for the third inmate. Nowa attributed the latest escape to negligence by duty warders.

The escapees are Mose Tego, 19, serving a five-year jail term with hard labour for burglary and theft; Mkupira Mveka, 22, and Kosima Mwandokha, 19--awaiting sentencing on theft and burglary charges.

Nowa said the three took advantage of the warders’ laxity to break prison security. He said Tego and Mwandokha will be taken to court “soon” to answer charges of unlawful escape.

“What is needed is to tighten security at these prisons to avoid further occurrence of such incidents,” said Nowa, who proposed use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the facilities to monitor movements of prisoners within the cells. He said the project will be provided for in the next financial year. Nowa said they also want to reduce the ratio between warders and prisoners to 1:5. The current ratio, according to him, is 1:12.

Nsanje Prison wins the distinction of having the smallest prison escape in the Third World this week (see previous blog entries on Peruvian, Nigerian and South African escapes).

Escapee Not As “At Large” As Thought

Adapted from the British papers:

A prisoner thought to have escaped from Holloway jail last week, Aishatu Ishaku, 35, has been found hiding inside the prison five days after she disappeared. She had been hiding inside the roof space of the prison's education center.

Prison officers mounted a major search for Ishaku after she went missing following a roll call last Friday. Police forces were alerted, a helicopter was scrambled and details of the Russian-born Nigerian woman were circulated to ports and airports. Ishaku, who was awaiting trial for fraud, was described as having long black hair with round spectacles.

Official had theorized that the prisoner had walked out of the facility by tagging along with a visiting group as it exited the facility.

Ishaku had spent five days in the hiding spot after taking supplies with her including food and water.

A Prison Service spokesman said today: "Following extensive searching of the prison by staff and dogs, a prisoner who was believed to have escaped from HMP Holloway was discovered within the prison on 10 June." If Ishaku had escaped, it would have been Holloway’s first in 12 years.

Baby-Kidnapper Bungles Escape Try

Adapted from California papers:

Carlos Garcia Morales, 23, Oxnard man suspected of kidnapping a 20-month-old infant in May is now accused of trying to escape from county jail, authorities said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s Capt. Ross Bonfiglio said deputies suspect Carlos Garcia Morales, 23, had been collecting bedsheets in his cell to make a rope to lower himself out of his Ventura jail cell.

Bonfiglio said deputies found the bedsheets Saturday. Deputies also found evidence that Morales was trying to cut through the bars on his cell window.

Morales, an undocumented alien, is being held without bail on suspicion of entering the United States illegally, according to jail records. He was arrested May 15 after authorities found the little girl in a car with him in the 100 block of South McKinley Avenue in Oxnard, authorities said.

Morales was arraigned this week and pleaded not guilty to all charges. He is scheduled to return to court in a few weeks.

Prison Staffers Fired After Last Week’s Alabama Break

Adapted from Alabama media sources:

HUNTSVILLE, AL The escape more than a week ago of convicted murderers Joshua Southwick, 26 and Ashton Mink, 22, from a private prison in Perry County has led to several firings of prison staff.

The pair was arrested last weekend in New York State.

The investigation of the escape had yielded information on two women suspected of aiding the duo’s flight.

Pictures of Angela Diana Mink, a tattoo artist, show specific tattoos which may assist the public in recognizing her. The tattoos are on both upper and lower arms, and both wrists, plus one on the base of her neck.

Perry County prison officials believe she and Jacquelin Rae Kennamer Mink cut through an electrical stun fence to help Mink and Southwick escape. It was a single cut that did in fact trip an alarm to alert the control room operator on the prison.

"That stun fence, if it's touched, cut or grounded, sets off an alarm in our central control unit," said Richard Harbison, executive dirctor of the corporation that owns the private prison. He said that it appears the alarm sounded when the fence was cut but that no one went ot investigate because of inclement weather.

Because of that, Harbison said, there's been an overhaul at the unit: "We dismissed seven people, two of which were shift captains for failure to carry out correct policies and procedures at the unit," he said. Others dismissed included correctional officers and the control room officer that failed to follow proper procedures.

The system that alerts officials when security has been breached is being overhauled. Now, the warden, deputy warden and chief security officer will all be notified automatically.

Officials have also raised the level of security at the prison to just below the level of a maximum security prison.

Inmate Escapes From Prison Transfer Bus

From WKYC-TV Cleveland reports:

CLEVELAND -- A prisoner, DeCharles L. Stephens, 23, of Beachwood, Ohio, slipped out of his handcuffs while on a Cleveland House of Corrections bus and jumped out of the emergency escape window at 8:30 a.m. this morning.

Cleveland House of Corrections' Commissioner Jackie Lewis said the shuttle bus was transporting prisoners from the jail in Highland Hills to the downtown Cleveland Justice Center for court appearances. All the prisoners were handcuffed in pairs to each other during the ride and were wearing street clothes.

Stephens managed to get the handcuff off his neighbor and jumped out the emergency escape window at the rear of the bus and took off running towards East 112th Street and Parkedge Drive.

Lewis says the corrections officer on the bus went after him and police were called.

Stephens has family on Nevada Street.

He was originally arrested for aggravated robbery following an incident on May 30 at East 13th Street and Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland.

Courthouse Escapee is Nabbed

Adapted from Lex.18.com, Lexington, Kentucky:

An inmate who escaped from the Estill County Courthouse Wednesday, Ethan Newman, is back behind bars after his recapture by police.

Newman is being held on several charges, including assault of a police officer. He was in copurt today facing charges of fleeing and evading. He said he asked the bailiff permission to use the bathroom. That's when he said he made his move in his handcuffs and orange jumpsuit.

Newman climbed onto the roof, then jumped to the street, then took cover in a nearby apartment where he pulled off the handcuffs.

Newman is due back in court Friday, charged with second degree escape.

Ganja and Kumar Escape White Castle

Adapted from The Times of India:

LUDHIANA, INDIA: Two prisoners, Sunil Kumar and Raju, alias Ganja, facing trial escaped from a police bus by pulling out a sheet of floor of the vehicle, on Thursday morning. Four police officers were present on board when the incident took place.

Around 25 prisoners were on board the bus, which was taking them from the Central Jail to the district court complex. According to information, undertrails Kumar and Raju, were sitting in the back seats of the bus, which was carrying 25 prisoners. As the bus reached the Jagraon Bridge near Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran Sahib, the prisoners on the front seats began an altercation. Soon undertrials on the back seats also joined them.

However, as a fight ensued, cops on the rear seats moved towards the front of the bus to pacify the agitated parties.

Taking advantage of the situation, Kumar and Raju pulled out the sheet of the bus floor and escaped from the bus, which was stranded on the road.

As soon as the cops saw the duo escape, they chased them, but the police were unable to catch them. Sukhchain Singh Gill, SSP, said, "We are already carrying out search operations to nab the undertrials who are gangsters and were booked under sections 399 and 402, IPC. We will also verify facts and take action against the guilty cops.”

Both the escapees originally hail from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and were living at the EWS colony on Tajpur Road in Ludhiana. The duo was booked by the division no 7 police station in 2007, for planning a dacoity [a gang robbery].

A lovely day for a walk and a re-apprehension. That’s all I have today. See you next time there is an escape.

Murderers Nabbed! (as of 11.38, 7 June 2009)

Alabama prison escapees caught in North Dakota
From wires and local news, Alabama:

The two inmates who escaped from a Perry County Corrections Center were captured early Saturday morning after a nearly 14-hour standoff more than 1,200 miles away from Alabama.

U.S. Marshals say Joshua Southwick and Ashton Mink were caught in North Dakota. The four were taken into custody around 2:25 p.m. Saturday.

Joshua Southwick, 26, and Ashton Mink, 22, escaped from the Perry County Detention Center in Uniontown, Ala., on May 25. Authorities say Angela Diana Mink, 25, and Jacquelin Rae Kennamer Mink, 25, Mink's sister and wife, helped the men escape.

Southwick and Angela Mink surrendered to authorities. Ashton and Jacquelin Mink both received gunshot wounds as they tried to escape and were being treated at a hospital.
Marshals say the four were allegedly involved in a robbery and police chase before being arrested.


Georgia inmate back in custody
From The Walton Tribune, Georgia:

SNELLVILLE — An escaped prisoner from Loganville was re-captured May 29 in Snellville following a brief 30-hour stint on the outside.

He allegedly fled in a city of Rome Public Works vehicle while on work detail May 28.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Jack Belcher, 41, was captured at 7:40 p.m. following a joint effort of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and Floyd County Prison officials.

Officials said Belcher was reported to have spent some of the time in Loganville before being tracked down in Snellville.

According to state prison records, Belcher has been in and out of prison since first being incarcerated in 1988 for forgery. Belcher had been held in the Floyd County Prison since February on charges of possession of methamphetamines, impersonating another individual and possession of a firearm by a felon.


Not much this weekend. My theory is that it is too hot to escape. Whatever. The bottom line is that I am done for this morning. We will blog again when someone escapes. Ciao.