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Behind Bars & Beyond Reason: Odd Behaviour & Unusual Escapes From Prison

Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Stitch upper lip

Prisoners Sew Lips Together in Protest



CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A group of Venezuelan prisoners sewed their lips together in a grisly protest to demand a transfer to another jail, officials say.


The protest at El Rodeo jail west of Caracas took place amid a spate of prison shootings this week that killed four inmates in the South American country, national prisons director Col. Carlos Alberto Sutrun told Reuters.

"A group of prisoners sewed their lips together. They made a stitch with needle and thread," he said Thursday.

Eleven El Rodeo inmates had sewed their mouths up Monday and eight had not removed the stitches as of Thursday. They were demanding to be returned to a jail from which they had been moved this year following a riot. Sutrun said that authorities had agreed to the move.

Sutrun also said the protesters could still eat and drink "through the corners of their mouths."

Venezuela's overcrowded jails have a reputation for appalling conditions and violence.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=4&u=/nm/20031017/od_nm/prisoners_dc
 
Quebecers crossbow crack into confinement

Drugs zinged into prison with crossbows

Official of Quebec penitentiary 'never heard of anything like it'

Mark Cardwell
National Post


Saturday, October 18, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT


QUEBEC - Corrections Canada officials seized thousands of dollars worth of illicit drugs last year at the penitentiary at Donnacona, Que., but they had no idea how they were being smuggled in -- until guards discovered two crossbow arrows in the prison yard last month.

"It's a new one for us, and I've never heard of anything like it in any other [Canadian] prison," said Carl Pelletier, deputy director of the maximum-security facility near Donnacona, a suburb of Quebec City.

According to Mr. Pelletier, prison officials first heard about drugs being shot over prison fences with bows last year from an informant. However, searches in the woods that surround the prison failed to turn up any evidence.

But last month, on Sept. 13, guards found the two arrows imbedded in the ground inside the prisoners' recreational yard on the northwest side of the facility.

Two weeks later, on Oct. 3 and 4, the motorized units that patrol the perimeter road outside the prison's barbed-wire fences found four more arrows and a tennis ball that had apparently fallen short of their mark.

Those arrows had been fired from a standard bow.

The arrows and the tennis ball contained a total of 25 grams of heroin, 89 grams of marijuana, 29 grams of hash and 115 pills containing a morphine derivative.

The drugs in the arrows were packed into straws that were crammed into the hollow shaft.

No arrests have been made in the case, which is being investigated by the Surêté du Québec. However, nine of the 325 prisoners currently held in Donnacona are suspects. They could face criminal charges or transfers to other prisons.

Because drug prices inside prison are several times higher than on the street (Mr. Pelletier says heroin, for example, sells for
Drugs zinged into prison with crossbows

Official of Quebec penitentiary 'never heard of anything like it'

Mark Cardwell
National Post


Saturday, October 18, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT


QUEBEC - Corrections Canada officials seized thousands of dollars worth of illicit drugs last year at the penitentiary at Donnacona, Que., but they had no idea how they were being smuggled in -- until guards discovered two crossbow arrows in the prison yard last month.

"It's a new one for us, and I've never heard of anything like it in any other [Canadian] prison," said Carl Pelletier, deputy director of the maximum-security facility near Donnacona, a suburb of Quebec City.

According to Mr. Pelletier, prison officials first heard about drugs being shot over prison fences with bows last year from an informant. However, searches in the woods that surround the prison failed to turn up any evidence.

But last month, on Sept. 13, guards found the two arrows imbedded in the ground inside the prisoners' recreational yard on the northwest side of the facility.

Two weeks later, on Oct. 3 and 4, the motorized units that patrol the perimeter road outside the prison's barbed-wire fences found four more arrows and a tennis ball that had apparently fallen short of their mark.

Those arrows had been fired from a standard bow.

The arrows and the tennis ball contained a total of 25 grams of heroin, 89 grams of marijuana, 29 grams of hash and 115 pills containing a morphine derivative.

The drugs in the arrows were packed into straws that were crammed into the hollow shaft.

No arrests have been made in the case, which is being investigated by the Surêté du Québec. However, nine of the 325 prisoners currently held in Donnacona are suspects. They could face criminal charges or transfers to other prisons.

Because drug prices inside prison are several times higher than on the street (Mr. Pelletier says heroin, for example, sells for $1,000 per gram in the prison, while a gram of hash or pot fetches $55), the estimated value of the smuggled drugs found was $40,000.

The use of tennis balls to smuggle drugs, however, is not new.

At the medium-security prison in Laval, which is located next to Autoroute 440, Mr. Pelletier said guards regularly find dope-filled tennis balls that are thrown into the prison yard from passing vehicles.

Last year, a series of intensive searches that were part of an ongoing Correctional Service of Canada strategy aimed at cracking down on drug consumption and smuggling in Canadian prisons led to the seizure of $183,000 in illicit drugs at the Donnacona facility.

Donnacona officials do not know if or how many drug-stuffed arrows landed inside prison grounds or if they were recuperated.

However, they are taking measures to thwart the smuggler.

"We'll be putting lights in the woods where the arrows were fired from, and installing infrared motion detectors in that area," Mr. Pelletier said. He said, too, that the size of the prisoners' recreational yard will also be reduced by two-thirds.

"That's part of the consequences [for the arrow shooting]," Mr. Pelletier said. "We're not running a daycare here."
,000 per gram in the prison, while a gram of hash or pot fetches ), the estimated value of the smuggled drugs found was ,000.

The use of tennis balls to smuggle drugs, however, is not new.

At the medium-security prison in Laval, which is located next to Autoroute 440, Mr. Pelletier said guards regularly find dope-filled tennis balls that are thrown into the prison yard from passing vehicles.

Last year, a series of intensive searches that were part of an ongoing Correctional Service of Canada strategy aimed at cracking down on drug consumption and smuggling in Canadian prisons led to the seizure of 3,000 in illicit drugs at the Donnacona facility.

Donnacona officials do not know if or how many drug-stuffed arrows landed inside prison grounds or if they were recuperated.

However, they are taking measures to thwart the smuggler.

"We'll be putting lights in the woods where the arrows were fired from, and installing infrared motion detectors in that area," Mr. Pelletier said. He said, too, that the size of the prisoners' recreational yard will also be reduced by two-thirds.

"That's part of the consequences [for the arrow shooting]," Mr. Pelletier said. "We're not running a daycare here."

http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?id=098CD32D-9185-4D1A-9D32-B6F1964EC175

I suspect its Quebecoise or something but lets not be pedants ;)

Emps
 
Man makes robot guinea pig in prison

I wonder why a man inside doing time needed a robotic guinea pig?

Businessman invents robotic guinea pig in prison

A top Belgian businessman is to market a robotic guinea pig which he invented while he was in prison.

Jo Lernout, a former director with speech recognition experts Lernout and Hauspie, calls his guinea pig Gupi.

He came up with the idea while he was being held in custody as part of an investigation into international fraud.

Mr Lernout was later released without charge and continued developing Gupi, reports Gazet van Antwerpen.

He said: "Gupi has a memory of his own, can walk on a table without tumbling over the edge, makes sounds of approval when being cuddled and falls asleep when it's getting dark."

Gupi will be on sale for about £60 within weeks and is tipped to be a major success.


Story filed: 14:18 Wednesday 22nd October 2003

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_831332.html?menu=news.quirkies
 
All sorts of reasons spring to mind, most of them are illegal and probably best not discussed until after 9pm....

Seriously, it's made me giggle.....

Here i am banged up, how shall i pass the time......of course! why didn't I think of it before!
 
Escaped Prisoners Found... Still In Prison

Missing Missouri Convicts Found in Prison
By DAVID A. LIEB, Associated Press Writer

JEFFERSON CITY - Two convicted murderers who disappeared after allegedly beating another inmate to death at a prison ice plant were found Sunday, still inside the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Inmates Christopher Sims and Shannon Phillips were discovered in the same building where they are believed to have killed convicted murderer Toby Viles four days earlier, corrections department spokesman John Fougere said.

He said both men surrendered without a struggle.

Hundreds of prison officials had been combing the penitentiary and its grounds since the men disappeared Wednesday, suspecting the inmates might never have escaped. No evidence of an escape had been found and no sightings of the men had been reported.

"They had constructed a very carefully concealed false wall, which was right near their work site at the ice house," Fougere said. He said the two likely had remained behind the wall most of time they were missing.

They were found when a prison staff member, tapping the wall as part of the search, was able to punch a hole in it, Fougere said.

Phillips immediately stuck his hand out and said, 'I give up,'"

Phillips, 35, has been serving a life prison sentence for a murder in Kansas City. Sims, 27, had been serving a life sentence for a murder in St. Louis.

Cole County Sheriff John Hemeyer has said that a note found near Viles' body bearing the initials of the two inmates claimed responsibility for his death and threatened to kill anyone else who got in their way.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=6&u=/ap/20031026/ap_on_re_us/inmate_death
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sort of like Albert RN..ancient British film about POW's WW2 guy excapes but its kept secret by the others useing a dummy on parade (the aformentioned Albert RN)
 
Death Row Cookbook

last updated: 2/16/2004

Death row cookbook stirs up controversy

ABC13 Eyewitness News

(2/16/04 - HUNTSVILLE, TX) — A cookbook with some down-home Texas recipes is stirring the pot.


The man who prepared more than 200 final meals for death row inmates is about to release ‘Meals to Die For'. The 500-page book has jail house recipes, a list of the most popular last requests, and details of the inmate's crimes. The author, Brian Price, served time himself for for kidnapping and sexual assault.

Price's book has outraged many people, including Dianne Clements from Justice for All . She says Price is "a scum-sucking bottom-feeder" and is trying to profit from crime at the expense of victims.

The book is set to come out next month.

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/021604_local_cookbook.html

I can't reall see that there is anything special about last meals other than the added titillation of havin crimes discussed alongside the meals. I find myself in agreement with Clements there ;)

[edit: longer report (found on the front page):

Former Prison Chef Writes Cookbook Featuring Recipes For Final Meals

POSTED: 3:05 pm EST February 17, 2004

CROCKETT, Texas -- With recipes for "gallows gravy" and "rice rigor mortis," Brian Price's new cookbook brings a touch of dark wit to a subject seldom welcome at the dinner table: death.


But it's the taste of Price's humor, not the flavor of his dishes, that is raising questions about "Meals to Die For," a collection of 42 recipes for final meals requested by inmates on Texas' death row.

"Some folks think I'm poking fun at a serious and solemn subject," said Price, who prepared 220 such meals in a prison kitchen in Huntsville while serving time himself. "My intention is not to offend anyone."

His recipes -- such as Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, in levels of spice measured at 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 volts -- have drawn criticism from at least one victims' rights group.

"He's a scum-sucking bottom-feeder," said Dianne Clements, president of the Houston-based Justice For All, complaining that Price is trying to profit from crime at the expense of victims.

The book, scheduled to be published in March, is as much about prison experiences as food.

"There's a fascination with death, the macabre, a curiosity of the dark side," said Price, who was paroled last year after serving 14 years on a pair of convictions related to the abduction of his brother-in-law and a sexual assault on an ex-wife.

The book says the favorite last meal is cheeseburgers and french fries. Steak, ice cream and fried chicken are popular too, Price said.

Vegetables? Not so much, although one inmate wanted fried squash, fried eggplant, mashed potatoes, snap peas, boiled cabbage, corn on the cob, spinach and cheese-covered broccoli with his chicken.

Price is not the first to tap into the public's fascination with final meals.

Until December, the state Department of Criminal Justice listed on its Web site every item requested in a last meal since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982. That was 313 meals until the list was eliminated after some people complained it was offensive.

"The subject of last meals is one that seems to captivate the public," department spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. Price will "definitely find an audience."

Prison officials try to meet meal requests but usually choose from whatever is available in the prison pantry. That means a request for lobster may bring fish sticks, the closest thing to seafood in stock.

Price begins the book with the filet mignon he was asked to cook in 1991 for Lawrence Buxton, who was executed for a robbery and slaying in Houston. He received a T-bone instead because the pantry did not stock the more expensive cut of meat.

He later learned from a corrections officer that Buxton had complimented the meal.

"That little feedback -- it moved me," he said.

http://www.wftv.com/food/2853419/detail.html ]

Emps
 
Nearly 50 Break Out of Jail Using Towel Rope

Mon Oct 11, 7:12 AM ET

Oddly Enough - Reuters

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Nearly 50 prisoners escaped from a Rio de Janeiro jail on Sunday using a rope made of sheets and towels in the city's second mass breakout in four days, officials said.



On Thursday, 69 people fled from a police detention center on the outskirts via a tunnel dug from the jail's courtyard.

This time, 48 prisoners of the Benfica jail in the northern part of Rio made a hole in the ceiling of the cellblock and used a rope to climb the wall of the jail before dawn.

A duty official at the state penitentiary secretariat said authorities suspected guards had been paid to turn a blind eye as a turret on the wall was not staffed during the escape. The guards were under arrest.

Corruption is widespread in Brazilian prisons as guards are poorly paid, while powerful drug gangs often use money and intimidation to free their comrades.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...&e=5&u=/nm/20041011/od_nm/crime_brazil_rio_dc
 
Grue(l)some treatment?

BOWEL OF PORRIDGE

Oct 11 2004

Prison doc uses breakfast dish as lubricant for con's internal exam

By Cara Page

A JAILED drug dealer is claiming £30,000 damages for a bizarre internal examination - using porridge as a lubricant.

Former prison doctor Alexander McFarlane admits he used milk from an old bowl of porridge when he examined Colin Hancock in Perth Prison.

But he denies Hancock's claim the porridge was also covered in cigarette ash.

Dr McFarlane was called to see Hancock - serving a four-year sentence for cannabis possession with intent to supply - when he claimed he could not pass urine.

He says he asked permission to carry out a rectal examination.

But Hancock denies that and says the incident brought back buried memories of childhood sex abuse and left him feeling suicidal.

Dr McFarlane, who has left the prison service, said: 'He said he was unable to pass urine.

'You can check the back of the bladder which is next door to the rectum. He gave me permission.

'I said we needed lubricant which we didn't have. I used some milk from the porridge.

'He claimed the thing was adulterated with cigarettes, but if it had been I would not have used it.

'I said to him if you are prepared to eat it in your mouth then it would be OK to apply it to the bottom end and he agreed. ' Hancock, from Southampton, denied he had given permission.

He said: 'I was having trouble urinating and I was expecting him to feel my kidneys.

'Without any warning, I just felt his finger going into my backside. Something happened in my past and, for well over 20 years, I had been able to put it out of my mind. It all came flooding back.'

Hancock's case will be called at Perth Sheriff Court in December.

The incident in 1996 was reported to the British Medical Association but no action has been taken against Dr McFarlane.

The doctor, who is married with children and lives in Glenfarg, Perthshire, is still registered with the General Medical Council. # STAFF at Saughton jail, in Edinburgh, have admitted they tolerate inmates' drug abuse.

In a BBC documentary, senior officers say it helps keep cons under control. But governor David Croft insists the jail is helping prisoners to kick their habits.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/t...488&headline=bowel-of-porridge-name_page.html
 
15" x 9"!!!! I'm a tiny man, but I am not at all confident, even with the carrot of freedom waved in front of me, that I could fit my body through an opening that size. Well, maybe. It would help a lot if I was greased first. :eek: (If I'm not being metric enough, this computer monitor is a 15" screen.)

Suspect cuts hole in drywall to escape cell

Mon Jun 13,10:06 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles police are trying to figure out how a robbery suspect managed to cut a hole in the wall of a cell and escape through a 15-by-9-inch hole in the space of an hour.

The suspect, described as a 20-year-old homeless man, 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds, escaped from a holding cell at a police station early Thursday morning.


Police said he appeared to have cut or torn a hole in the cell's drywall and ripped up a metal security mesh sandwiched inside the wall before crawling out and leaving through a fire exit.

He had been searched before being put in the cell, but when police checked on him an hour later he had vanished.

"I'm reluctant to put any blame on anyone at this point," said police Lt. Carlos Islas. "Clearly there's a hole in the wall. Whether it's a construction flaw will be determined at a later date."

The department said it was inspecting cells at all 19 of the city's police stations. The man was still at large on Friday.

SOURCE
 
False fax allows US prison escape

A prisoner in the US state of Kentucky was mistakenly freed after a phoney fax ordering his release was sent from a nearby grocery store.


Timothy Rouse, 19, was being held on charges of assault and robbery.

The fax ordering his release claimed to be from the state supreme court, but was riddled with spelling errors and had no letterhead.

Police found Rouse two weeks later at his mother's house after prison authorities realised their mistake.

"It's outrageous that it happened," said Fulton County attorney Rick Major. "I'm just glad nobody got hurt, because he's dangerous."

Rouse was being held at the Kentucky Correctional and Psychiatric Center near Louisville for mental evaluation when he was released on 6 April.

Prison officials said the fax was received from a nearby grocery store. Police are investigating who faxed the document.

The prison's director said their policies do not require them to check the source of faxes.

"It's not part of a routine check," said Greg Taylor, "but certainly, in hindsight, that would perhaps have caused somebody to ask a question."

Mr Taylor said spelling mistakes are common on court documents.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Published: 2007/04/23 10:00:26 GMT

© BBC MMVII
 
Inmate escapes German jail in box
By Greg Morsbach
BBC News

A manhunt is under way in western Germany for a convicted drug dealer who escaped by mailing himself out of jail.

The 42-year-old Turkish citizen - who was serving a seven-year sentence - had been making stationery with other prisoners destined for the shops.

At the end of his shift, the inmate climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of prison by express courier. His whereabouts are still unknown.

The chief warden of the jail told the BBC this was an embarrassing incident.

The prison authorities in Willich, near Duesseldorf, said the man, who was tall and broad-shouldered, had hidden in a box that was about 150cm by 120cm.

When the weekly express courier arrived to pick up several boxes of merchandise, the one containing the prisoner was also loaded into the back of the lorry.

Shortly after it had passed through the prison gates, the inmate made his dash for freedom by cutting a big hole in the tarpaulin of the lorry and jumped off.

The driver alerted the police after he noticed the tarpaulin flapping in the breeze.

The jail's chief warden, Beate Peters, said the man must have had accomplices outside the prison.

"As soon as the prisoner jumped off the back of the lorry his friends would have picked him up," she told the BBC.

"We have no idea where the fugitive is hiding. We assume that he is still in the county and is lying low before making his move."

Ms Peters said fellow convicts must also have known of his plan but that they would not talk because of a "code of honour" and because it is a criminal offence in Germany to help somebody escape from jail.

She said the incident showed that security needed to be beefed up urgently, something she had been lobbying for in the last few years.

"I was not surprised that an escape happened on my watch. For years I had been asking for more security guards from the government. But now they'll have to listen."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7730018.stm
 
Israel gripped by identity of 'Prisoner X'
Israel has been gripped by a guessing game over the identity of a mysterious prisoner being held in such secrecy that even his guards do not know his name.
By Richard Spencer and Adrian Blomfield
Published: 9:45PM BST 21 Jun 2010

The elusive "Mr X" is being held for unspecified crimes and confined in total seclusion within a private wing of the maximum-security Ayalon prison.

No one knew of his existence until the shroud of secrecy was briefly lifted after a story appeared on the website of Israel's leading Hebrew-language newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

Quoting unidentified officials within the Israeli penitentiary service, it disclosed that Mr X was being held in Unit 15, a wing of Ayalon prison that contains a single cell.

He is not though to receive any visitors and his wing is cut off from the rest of the prison by double iron doors. So hermetic are the conditions in which he is held that other prisoners can neither see nor hear him.

"He is simply a person without a name and without an identity who has been placed in total and utter isolation from the outside world," a prison official was quoted as saying.

Within hours, the story had vanished from the newspaper's website, allegedly after Israel's domestic intelligence service won a gagging order banning all media coverage of the case.

The attempt to redraw the veil has had only limited success, however, with the disappearance of the story serving only to whet the interests of human rights activists in Israel, who have now launched a campaign to force the state to unmask Mr X and disclose his crimes.

Dan Yakir, chief legal counsel for the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the country's oldest human rights group, said: "There is no information on whether this person has been charged, whether he has been tried or whether he has been convicted."

In a letter to the Israeli attorney general last week which has yet to receive a response, Mr Yakir protested the secrecy surrounding Mr X's detention.

"It is insupportable that, in a democratic country, authorities can arrest people in complete secrecy and disappear them from public view without the public even knowing such an arrest took place," he wrote.

Amid the intrigue and the silence of the domestic press, Mr X's cause has also been taken up by influential Jewish bloggers, most notably Richard Silverstein, a US-based commentator who has played a leading role in forcing Israel to drop gagging orders in recent months.

While there has been little but speculation as to what Mr X may have done, there can be little doubt about the importance attached to him by the state for he is being held in the cell specially built to house Yigal Amir, the Israeli extremist who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister, in 1995.

But one Israeli security expert said that the secrecy suggested espionage rather than terrorism is likely to lie at the heart of the mystery.

In 1983, Marcus Klingberg, a leading Israeli scientist, was jailed for 20 years for passing secrets about the country's biological warfare programme to the Soviets. But it was only after he had been in prison for a decade that Israelis heard for the first time about Klingberg's existence, arrest and conviction.

Mr X is being held in the same prison as Mordechai Vanunu, the whistle-blower who revealed Israeli nuclear secrets before he was lured out of Britain by a Mossad honeytrap in 1986 and jailed for 18 years.

Vanunu was sent back to prison last month for talking to foreigners, in violation of his parole.

Israel's prison service has declined to confirm or deny the existence of Mr X on security grounds.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ner-X.html

I reckon Mr. X is really the Doctor..! ;)
 
‘Mentally abnormal’ inmate escapes Moscow prison 'using spoon’
http://rt.com/news/moscow-prison-spoon-escape-949/

An inmate charged with two counts of murder has escaped from one of Russia’s oldest and most famous detention centers through a hole in the ceiling. The escapee may have only used a spoon in his jailbreak, a police source said.

Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison has seen just a handful of escapes in its history. Oleg Topalov, a 33-year-old from Sochi, may have outdone them all in sheer effortlessness: He allegedly used only a piece of tableware to escape.

Early Tuesday morning, the prison’s guards discovered that Topalov, an inmate in an eight-person cell, was missing. Accused of two murders and illegal arms trafficking, Topalov was characterized as “mentally abnormal and liable to escape” by the prison staff.

Having been detained for a year and a half, he was scheduled to appear in court soon, but made his escape before the hearings could begin.

According to Federal Penitentiary Service spokesperson Sergey Tsygankov, Topalov “expanded the vent of an air-shaft with the help of some item.” He then climbed up the vent to the prison’s roof, and left the facility undetected.

Oleg Topalov (Photo from www.fsin.su)

The only item suitable for the job that Topalov would have had in his possession was “a table-spoon,” a police source speculated, according to Interfax. The inmates are “routinely searched” for items they are not allowed to have, the source added.

While the police search for the escapee within the city and Moscow region, investigators have opened an inquiry into possible dereliction of duty among prison staff.

Matrosskaya Tishina comprises a set of detention buildings surrounded by a high barbed-wire wall in one of the capital’s residential areas. Some of the prison’s pre-trial facilities have held high-profile detainees such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Sergey Magnitsky.

The prison opened at the end of the 18th century, making it one of the oldest detention centers in Russia. Matrosskaya Tishina’s current buildings were built about 100 years ago, which is one of the reasons Topalov succeeded in his escape, according to Russian Federal Penitentiary Service representative Kristina Belousova.

"Because of the building being run-down, Topalov had no difficulty in widening the vent of the air-shaft, through which he got to the prison’s roof. Using sheets tied one to another he managed to go down the wall, then jump over the fence and run away,” Belousova told RIA Novosti.

Most of the inmates who attempted to escape Matrosskaya Tishina before Topalov used brute force to smash the facility’s brick walls. They were all later detained.

The most successful escape that the jail has seen took place in 1995, puzzling the authorities and causing a big stir in the media. Notorious hitman Aleksandr Solonik made use of an accomplice in the junior police who infiltrated the prison guards’ ranks and smuggled him some mountain-climbing equipment. Both escaped with the help of a 20-meter long cord thrown over the jail’s wall. Solonik was never seen in Russia again, but two years later reports of his death emerged in Greece.
 
Mississippi sued over for-profit prison where inmates sell leashed rats
http://rt.com/usa/mississippi-prison-in ... -rats-029/

Officials at a corporate Mississippi prison will have to answer for alleged human rights abuses that took place in one of the state’s for-profit correction centers now that two major-league civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit addressing the issue.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) announced Thursday they have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Mississippi because of how inmates at East Mississippi Correctional Facility are constantly at “grave risk of death and loss of limbs.”

The suit alleges that inmates in the prison, which is the state’s primary special needs facility for convicts with mental health issues, are subjected to long isolation periods in “barbaric” conditions, often in rat-infested cells with broken toilets.

“Prisoner-on-prisoner stabbings and beatings are frequent because the locking mechanism on the cell doors can be readily defeated, and some officers are complicit in unlocking doors to allow violence to occur,” the lawsuit claims.

The detention center is run by Management and Training Corp., based in Centerville, Utah, which is not named in the lawsuit. The ACLU and SPLC assert Mississippi lawmakers have long known about the conditions but have failed to act.

East Mississippi Correctional Facility (Screenshot from youtube.com @lifgosonshema)

Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist who studied East Mississippi Correctional Facility, wrote in 2011 that an overburdened prison psychologist, inefficient mental health programs, and staffing problems were issues that could have serious implications.

“All inmates report significant weight loss since arriving at EMCF, from ten to 60 pounds, and from my direct observation it is clear that all the men are much thinner, almost emaciated, in comparison to old snapshots I viewed in their charts or on their identity cards showing them much heavier,” Kupers wrote, as quoted by the Jackson Clarion Ledger.

Medical conditions are so bleak, the suit claims, that one inmate went blind from glaucoma and another had a finger amputated after failing to receive treatment for gangrene.

“Many cells lack light and working toilets, forcing prisoners to use trays or plastic bags that are tossed through slots in their cell doors,” wrote the SPLC. “Rats often climb over prisoners’ beds. Some prisoners even capture the rats, put them on makeshift leashes and sell them as pets to other prisoners.”

The Management and Training Corp. operates 22 for-profit prisons in eight states, and named is in a slew of controversies. Allegations range from a prison warden ignoring an alarm, thereby allowing prisoners to escape, to “rampant” sexual abuse.

In 2007, two guards at one of the firm's Texas prisons were charged with orchestrating a smuggling ring after they were pulled over, while in uniform, driving a van with 28 undocumented immigrants in the back.
 
I reckon this belongs here. Theres a song about another prison escape via helicopter. The prison guards thought it was the minister for justice arriving:


Canada prisoners escape by helicopter from Quebec jail

Three detainees have escaped from a jail in Quebec province by helicopter, police in eastern Canada say.

The helicopter swooped down late on Saturday and is believed to have flown off with the prisoners to the west, possibly towards Montreal.

The men were being held at the Orsainville detention centre, near Quebec City, pending their trial.

The public are being warned not to approach the men but to contact the police immediately if they see them.

It is the second jailbreak involving a helicopter in Quebec province in just over a year.

In March 2013, two inmates fled from a prison near Montreal by climbing up a rope into a waiting helicopter.

Ground search
The missing inmates have been named by police as Yves Denis (35), Denis Lefebvre (53) and Serge Pomerleau (49), however there are no details of the charges against them.

CBC news said two of them were detained by provincial police in 2010 after a drugs bust known as Project Crayfish that led to dozens of arrests.

Spokeswoman Audrey-Anne Bilodeau said police were working with "partners like the airports of Quebec City and surrounding areas, the military bases and, of course, there's a ground search in the event that the helicopter is located."

Few details of the escape have emerged, but Ms Bilodeau said it appeared the green helicopter landed briefly, either inside or outside the gates of the detention centre, the Montreal Gazette reported.

The escape happened at about 19:45 local time (23:45 GMT) on Saturday.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27752641
 
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Out of the frying pan and into the fire (on the way back into the frying pan), so to speak ...

Escaped inmate caught returning to prison with home-cooked food
Authorities in Texas said a federal prison inmate was arrested on an escape charge after he was caught running back to the prison with a bag of home-cooked food.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office said deputies received a tip that inmates at the Federal Correctional Complex in Beaumont were crossing from prison grounds into private land owned by a local rancher to smuggle contraband into the facility.

The sheriff's office Narcotics Investigators and U.S. Marshals set up surveillance at the facility Thursday and witnessed a vehicle drop a large duffle bag on the private property.

An inmate, identified as Joshua Hansen, 25, was seen running from the prison grounds to retrieve the bag.

Hansen, who was being held at the complex on a narcotics charge, was caught while running back to the prison with the bag, which was found to contain contraband including "a large amount of home-cooked food."

The bag also contained marijuana, three bottles of brandy, one bottle of whisky, multiple bags of Bugler tobacco, packaged snacks and fruit.

Hansen was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on charges of escape and possession of marijuana.

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0...?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=10

NOTE: The web article includes photos of the stuff this inmate was carrying back into the prison.
 
The Big Hit: A prison comedy drama about a comedy-drama being staged in a prison. This film set in France is based on a true case which occurred in Sweden, we know that the prisoners escaped but how things got to that point is teased in the drama. Étienne (Kad Merad) is a down at heel actor, works as a drama coach, reduced to teaching Maori hakas at corporate team-building events. He gets a chance to teach drama at a high security prison and the inmates involved eventually impress him with their fable dramatisations. He convinces the prison governor to allow him to put on a performance of Waiting For Godot which will be staged outside of the jail. Six months of rehearsals ensue. There are no cardboard characters here, every prisoner is unhappy in his own way. Obstacles encountered are not all heroically overcome and as Beckett would have appreciated there is lot of waiting around in prison. Great performances from Merad and the supporting cast. Directed and Co-Written by Emmanuel Courcol. 8/10.

In cinemas.
 
This is probably apocryphal as it was told to me by one of our prison librarians who heard it from a colleague at a conference.

This colleague was approached at the end of one of the cell block visits to the library by Inmate X who said that he’d not been able to read when he first came to the prison and he felt it was due to the efforts of the librarian and her staff to get him on a literacy programme, find him books of the right interest and literacy levels and generally encourage him. He wanted to thank her as he was getting out the next day and he felt these skills would benefit him.

She went in the next day ready to pass this on to her staff and anyone else who would listen when one of the warders greeted her with; “Did you hear about X? – He escaped last night.”
 
NJ had a woman escape the women's prison in 1979, Joanne Chesimard, she was a member of the Black Liberation Army, and was convicted of murdering a police officer in 1973, and was given a sentence of life in prison.

Friends in the organization drove a van onto the prison grounds and got Chesimard out, she then escaped to Cuba where she is apparently still living in freedom:

https://nypost.com/2021/01/01/fbi-calls-for-tips-in-case-of-cop-killer-joanne-chesimard/
 
Vid at link.

Watch: Murder suspect flees US courtroom​


Edi Villalobos escaped from an Oregon courtroom during jury selection for his upcoming trial.

In accordance with Oregon law, all of the suspect’s restraints, such as handcuffs and leg shackles, were removed while in the courtroom for the trial.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-64929190
 
(It shouldn't need to be said, but no admiration for this vile thug should be inferred from this post. I hope that he is either recaptured or killed ASAP.)

Convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante escapes Chester County, Pa., Prison by crab-walking up a wall.

Cavalcante was recently sentenced to life without parole for the brutal murder of his 33-year-old ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandão in April 2021; he stabbed her 38 times in front of her two young children. He was arrested in Virginia, and authorities believe he was attempting to flee to Brazil, where he is from.


In the last 13 days, the fugitive (who is also an illegal immigrant from Brazil) has been spotted by surveillance tapes and eyewitnesses; the most recent witness confronted the convict in his South Coventry Township home, stealing a .22 caliber rifle. The homeowner fired a pistol at Cavalcante, but there is no evidence of bodily injury.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/ashleym...mmigrant-danelo-cavalcante-continues-n1726382

maximus otter
 
(It shouldn't need to be said, but no admiration for this vile thug should be inferred from this post. I hope that he is either recaptured or killed ASAP.)

Convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante escapes Chester County, Pa., Prison by crab-walking up a wall.

Cavalcante was recently sentenced to life without parole for the brutal murder of his 33-year-old ex-girlfriend Deborah Brandão in April 2021; he stabbed her 38 times in front of her two young children. He was arrested in Virginia, and authorities believe he was attempting to flee to Brazil, where he is from.


In the last 13 days, the fugitive (who is also an illegal immigrant from Brazil) has been spotted by surveillance tapes and eyewitnesses; the most recent witness confronted the convict in his South Coventry Township home, stealing a .22 caliber rifle. The homeowner fired a pistol at Cavalcante, but there is no evidence of bodily injury.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/ashleym...mmigrant-danelo-cavalcante-continues-n1726382

maximus otter
A convicted murderer who broke out of prison by "crab-walking" over the walls has been caught after a nearly two-week-long manhunt.
Danelo Cavalcante was captured in the woods by a team of tactical officers, with thermal imaging equipment in the air and search dogs.

https://news.sky.com/story/danelo-c...-walking-up-wall-is-caught-by-police-12960542
 
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