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.

Flown The Coop (as of 8 a.m. 28 May 2009)

This is the first day I'll be tracking, as best I can, those individuals who have proactively refused the hospitality of the Government.

The other night I heard someone say on television, "People escape from jail all the time."

Do they?

Let's see if they do. I will post on days when there is prison break news. If a comment seems fitting, I add one at the end of the story. If not, I don't. If there are no prison escapes on a given day, I don't blog. Now let's all open our Bibles, extract our digging tools, and get busy...

Gone, But Not Far
From KTEN Channel 10 serving North Texas and Southern Oklahoma:

The sheriff says inmate Billy Wallace ran down an alley behind the courthouse, and then headed South on 3rd Street where he got into a car. He says in all his escape lasted about 15 minutes, but that 15 minutes of freedom could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Sheriff Bill Sturch says, "At the rate he's going, he's going to spend the better part of his life in prison."

For a second time, 18-year-old Billy Wallace escaped from jailers in Bryan County, and it turns out, it may not have been just a lucky run.

Wallace's girlfriend, Jessica Miller, and another teenager also face charges. They join Wallace behind bars in the jail that's caught so much attention over the past few years because of escapes.

The sheriff says, "Basically what you have is a guy running into a hornets' nest because there was every law enforcement agency in this part of the world looking for him, and moving into that area."

Authorities believe Wallace ran from the courthouse, and jumped into a car with Miller and the teen, then raced down Highway 78, but crashed when deputies put out spike strips.

Sheriff Sturch is looking into whether Wallace had the proper restraints on at the courthouse to begin with. All he'll say is they're still investigating.

"Were checking to see how he got loose. Don't know if he was cuffed when he escaped."

If that's the case, it brings up an even bigger issue for Bryan County because just three weeks ago that's how Wallace got away the first time. A jailer didn't keep him in handcuffs and leg irons. That jailer was fired.

"It's the same old thing. He didn't get out of jail. He ran out of the courthouse, were trying to find out why and how."

For now Wallace remains locked up in the Bryan County Jail awaiting more charges.

Fifteen minutes and then the rest of his life in prison. Tough but fair.

Two Escape Private Prison (with super TV graphic)
WVUA-TV, Tuscaloosa, Alabama:

Police are searching for two prison escapees in, and around, Perry County. According to the Uniontown Police Department, Joshua Southwick and Ashton Mink escaped at about 5:30 Monday morning from the Perry County Correction Center.

Authorities say they suspect the two cut through 3 fences at the facility. The Alabama Department of Corrections leases bed space from the private facility in Uniontown.
Southwick was serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to a 2003 murder-for-hire case in Limestone County. Mink was serving time for an attempted murder conviction in Madison County in 2005. He is not scheduled for release until 2028.

Residents in the area are on edge, the two men are considered, by police, to be armed and dangerous.
“I really didn't know what to think. I just started locking my doors and I told my kids to come in the house,” said Uniontown resident Clifford Coleman to our reporter.

Many people have been calling the Uniontown Police Department, concerned about the two escapees. Most of the calls focus on one question.

“It’s mainly the same question; have they been captured?” said Uniontown Police Department Dispatcher Victoria Wilson. Wilson goes on to say, “One lady called advising that she hadn't been outside and she hasn't even opened her door for anyone. So they're pretty scared.”

Joshua Southwick is a 26-year-old white male. He has brown hair and hazel eyes. Police say he is 5’9” tall and 150 pounds. Ashton Mink is 23-years-old. He is also white with brown hair and green eyes. He’s 5’8” and weighs 165 pounds. Perry County Sheriffs Office tells us the two were last seen wearing orange prison jumpsuits.
If you see them, do not approach the pair. Call police. You can also call the Perry County Correctional Center at (334) 628-8885 with any tips on the escapees’ whereabouts.

The Tuscaloosa News adds: Prison Warden Tommy Buford did not answer phone calls from a Tuscaloosa News reporter Tuesday or Wednesday. A prison employee referred calls to Dick Harbison, the vice-president of Lafayette, La.-based LCS Corrections Services, which owns and operates the prison. The 734-bed facility houses prisoners from Alabama and other states in addition to federal prisoners.

The state’s Department of Corrections does not have oversight of the company’s management or security practices at the prison because it is a private corporation.
The Department of Corrections pays the company $32 a day to house 249 state inmates, less than the $41.71 it costs to house them in a state facility, spokesman Brian Corbett said. He said that the department has not had problems with the Uniontown facility or the company, which housed Alabama inmates in Louisiana because of prison overcrowding between 2003 and 2006.
Until last month, the prison also housed around 80 prisoners from Vermont, but the Vermont Department of Corrections removed those inmates after an investigation into prisoner complaints that they had been injured in fights with other inmates, said Seth Lipshutz, the supervising attorney in Vermont’s Prisoners’ Rights Office.
<--That's Southwick. Looks like Pvt. Pyle from Full Metal Jacket. And Mink: Not scheduled for release until 2028? Then isn't he jumping the gun just a bit? And now we know how to get out of a privately operated prison in Alabama: 1. Be from Vermont, and 2. Get punched (or punch someone else)
in the nose. Or get shanked...

No Blood Was Spilled...
Various reports, San Quentin, California

Some confusion involving a Bloodmobile truck resulted in a brief lockdown at San Quentin Tuesday. There was a blood drive at the prison, after which the truck was let out of the facility without being checked by guards for escaping prisoners.

The truck was there for staff blood donations. No inmates got close to it, corrections officials say. The lockdown lasted for about 90 minutes.


At Least She Didn't Ruin A Cake...
From the Daily Item of Sunbury, Pennsylvania...

A Millville woman who tried to help a co-defendant in a drug ring escape from the Lycoming County Prison has been sentenced to seven years in prison followed by four years of supervised release.

U.S. Middle District Senior Judge James F. McClure Jr. sentenced her Tuesday. ...She admitted she tried to help co-defendant Curtis Perry escape from prison. Perry is awaiting trial in Florida in connection with the Oct. 23, 2003, shooting death in Hialeah of an individual he and co-defendant allegedly thought would be testifying against them in another case.

The escape attempt occurred on April 27, 2006, when Kolk began drilling a hole into a wall that separated her from Perry to whom she was talking by telephone in a visitor’s booth. The Lycoming County prison does not allow contact visits. ...[A] federal prosecutor said she took a drill, bit and hacksaw blade undetected into the prison. Her goal was to make a hole in the thick wall large enough to pass the hacksaw blade to Perry, he said. Kolk did not complete the hole. [She] put the residue from the drilling in a bag and left, the prosecutor said. The hole later was discovered and the matter referred to federal marshals since Perry was their responsibility.

Since the incident, the prison requires all visitors to pass through a metal detector.

Good idea, prison.

Prisoner Gets the Shaft

From KeysNet, Florida

...Deputies say James Dumas, 45, climbed up a maintenance shaft at the Stock Island jail and gained access to a hallway that leads to visitation rooms. He was walking down the hallway when two corrections officers spotted him, recognizing him as an inmate.He was apprehended without incident while still inside the building.

Dumas reportedly told Detective Diane Mimosa that about a week prior to his attempted escape, during maintenance on plumbing in the unit Dumas was being held in, a door to a maintenance shaft apparently wasn't locked properly. Dumas discovered the error and was able to explore the shaft, looking for a way out. He was unable to find any way out using the shaft, but did manage to find his way to a maintenance closet in the visitation hallway.

He said he used pens and a highlighter to alter some of his jail clothing in hopes of looking less like an inmate; he then waited until a visitation time to attempt his escape.

"The corrections officers who spotted him and recognized what was happening did an outstanding job," Sheriff Bob Peryam said. "We will definitely be looking closely at this incident and will be doing everything we can to keep anything similar from taking place."

Dumas is accused of attempted murder in a machete attack last June 2. He's accused of trying to kill Jacob Freeman, 22, at Freeman's Key Haven home.

Working Together Toward a Common Goal

From the Houston Chronicle

MEXICO CITY -- Soldiers and police searched Monday for dozens of prisoners who busted out of a northern Mexican prison with the aid of their jailers as authorities nationwide struggle with endemic police corruption.

The 53 prisoners, including at least 11 gunmen from the Gulf Cartel drug smuggling organization, escaped early Saturday from the prison in the city of Zacatecas. As many as 30 heavily armed gangsters freed the men in a five-minute assault during which the prisoners were presumably simply set free by their guards, Zacatecas Gov. Amalia Garcia said.

Based in cities and towns bordering far South Texas, the Gulf Cartel is considered among Mexico's most powerful and violent groups.

Officials blame the Zetas, who now often act independently of the cartel, for violence, kidnappings and extortion in Zacatecas, throughout eastern and southern Mexico and into Guatemala.

...The Zetas, gunmen allied with the Gulf Cartel...have become notorious for jailbreaks like that of Zacatecas on Saturday, having raiding prisons in at least four states to rescue arrested colleagues. In Saturday's case the assailants, some dressed as police, arrived in more than a dozen vehicles, quickly entered the prison and left with their prisoners.

USAToday has more, about videos of the escape:

...The video shows bored-looking guards watching TV before one of the prisoners opens an unlocked gate to his cell block and then orders a group of inmates to follow him into the guards' room. The guards step aside, making no moves to stop the escape, until they are shoved into the cell block by the inmates, some of them armed. Prisoners then cover the camera with a blanket. Meanwhile, a second security camera outside the prison filmed the arrival of gunmen in police cars with flashing lights shortly before 5 a.m. Two guards run to open the front gate without questioning the drivers.

This is just one event in the very bloody and unfunny civil war going on in Mexico between the drug cartels and the government.

Up and Coming Offenders

From the Daily Journal, San Mateo County, California...

...[A] former juvenile hall ward convicted of helping a 17-year old murder defendant escape...now faces prison after his probation officer claims he violated probation five times since being released from custody.

One of the violations filed by the officer alleges Vanher Cho, 19, threatened and battered his mother and elderly aunt at their San Francisco residence May 15. A week later, police arrested Cho, [who is being held without bail]. Even one of the alleged violations could send Cho to prison for the two-year term he avoided after pleading no contest last April to one felony count of aiding and abetting. Although prosecutors sought prison and Cho’s defense asked for the Pathways Mental Health Court program and release from custody, Judge Cliff Cretan placed him on five years supervised probation and one year jail with credit for 187 days.

Under the law, a probation violation can reinstate the original sentence carried by a conviction even if a negotiated plea brought a lesser term. Whether prosecutors push for a stringent sentence will depend in part on the facts of the alleged attack on his family and the nature of the other violations, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Cho and accomplice Martin Villa Patino, 19, were both charged with aiding and abetting after pushing Josue Orozco, then 17, over a wall surrounding an outside recreation yard at the Youth Services Center on Paul Scannell Drive in unincorporated San Mateo County. Orozco, awaiting trial for the murder of a 21-year-old Redwood City man, pulled himself over the wall using a halogen light set below the 15-foot minimum and slipped through a three-foot hole previously cut in the perimeter fence.

The escape set off a hunt for Orozco, a trio of investigations into the facility’s security and the county’s response and led to criminal convictions for both Cho and Patino. Patino was also charged with acting to further the Sureño gang of which both he and Orozco belonged.

Cho and Patino were at the juvenile hall instead of the adult Maguire Correctional Center in downtown Redwood City because they were finishing juvenile sentences on unrelated charges. Patino, who was transferred to the jail after turning 18, received two years prison for the escape ...and an unrelated assault on a correctional officer while awaiting trial.

Orozco, who when arrested in 2005 at age 14 became the youngest murder defendant charged as an adult in San Mateo county, remained at large from the time of his Feb. 14, 2008 escape until that September when apprehended on suspicion of home burglaries in San Antonio, Texas.

Okay. Let's look at Cho first. He helps a murder suspect escape from detention and gets probation ...which time he uses to allegedly beat up his mother and his aunt. Great call by Judge Cliff Cretan. What does a kid have to do in California to actually go to jail?

That's it for our first blog post. A word about formatting. Instead of spending hours trying to defeat the formatting of news organizations, I go with the paragraph spacing they used. It saves time. Maybe if I get advertising I will try harder. Don't count on it.

Now I gotta get out of here. I will post again when and if there is news. After all, people don't escape from prison every day, do they?

I couldn't delete this ad. Oh well. Sorry there wasn't more payoff for you.