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.