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The NY Times reports that although no single lapse or mistake in security enabled two killers to break out of the Clinton Correctional Facility two weeks ago, it is now clear that an array of oversights, years in the making, set the stage for the prison break and for the ensuing manhunt. According to the Times, a sense of complacency had taken hold that in some ways might have been understandable. There had not been an escape from the 170-year-old prison in decades, and officials say no one had ever broken out of the maximum-security section. "As the months go by, years go by, things get less strict," says Keith Provost. Unlike many prisons and jails across the country, there are no video cameras on the cell blocks at the Clinton facility that might have detected suspicious activity and although prison rules forbid putting sheets across cell bars to obstruct viewing, in practice, officers say, inmates frequently were allowed to hang sheets for lengthy periods. Officials ssay there is a good chance that the two men had been at work on their plan for weeks, maybe months. Night after night, the authorities have come to believe, the two men stuffed their beds with crude dummies, slipped out of holes they had cut in the back of their cells and climbed down five stories using the piping along the walls. They then set to work inside the tunnels under the prison, spending hours preparing their path of escape before returning to their cells unobserved.
Prisoners have 24 hours a day to find breaks in the system. says Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John Wetzel adding that it could be a loose chain link or peeling paint around vents that could give the prisoners what they need to develop a escape plan. According to Wetzel, when people are sentenced to a life in prison, they have all the time in the world to come up with escape plans. "If you have life to plan it out, you can wait for your opportunity."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 22 2015, @09:14AM
For me, two things stand out.
First, during bed checks, the guards stopped shining their flashlights onto prisoner's heads and faces. That seems absurd to me. I can easily fake many parts of the body, but I am simply unable to fake a convincing face. The light wakes the prisoner? Minimize that with a red lens. If I shine a red light in your face, I probably won't wake you, but I can SEE YOU! WTF - are guards really that stupid? Are the wardens really that stupid? WTF?!?!?!
Second - No one patrolled anywhere in those ducts and access ways in HOW FUCKING LONG?!?! NO ONE?!?! For God's sake, if I shared any responsibility for keeping prisoners in, I would want those places patrolled AT LEAST once per shift! So, maybe it's a lot of bother to climb up and down ladders, and walk those long distances along cell blocks with poor lighting. DO IT!!
"At one time, corrections officers regularly patrolled the catwalks, listening in on inmates’ conversations and gathering intelligence."
You can bet your ass that the prisoners knew about those patrols, and they also knew when the patrols ended. Huge flashing GREEN LIGHT for escape plans right there! Catwalks, tunnels, ladders, every possible access point, every possible route in, out, and through the prison, needs to be patrolled regularly, even if infrequently.
Other deficiencies, I can agree with, but most of them seem less important. Sheets hung on the bars? Bad no-no, but still not the same sort of serious screw up as the first two. No cameras? Hmmm - maybe, maybe not. The presence of cameras would help to rationalize the lack of patrols. I really don't CARE about the cameras very much, I want WARM BODIES PATROLLING!! Presumably, the stupidest guard hired is probably more intelligent than a robot sweeping a camera in a fixed arc, with predictably periodicity.
Oh yeah - they have to get PERMISSION from Albany to do a lockdown and a search of the prison? One more time, WTF?!?!
Can anyone imagine a battalion of Marines being required to get permission from the Pentagon, before conducting a perimeter sweep in Afghanistan?
Maybe that's a stupid question. We send troops into combat zone with truly fucked up "rules of engagement".
Whatever, the prison system is guilty of gross incompetence from the highest to the lowest levels. GROSS FUCKING INCOMPETENCE.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @09:39AM
Yes, they are. If they were more intelligent, they wouldn’t have worked as guards/wardens.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by choose another one on Monday June 22 2015, @10:31AM
For me only one thing stands out - at least the first part of this escape is exactly the f***ing same as the escape from alcatraz, hell these guys probably watched the movie.
Dummies in beds - wtf that one still works ? Nobody (in the prison service at least) learned anything even from the movie of the alcatraz escape, and years later some guys can still go and do the same thing all over again ?
IR cameras or sensor or night vision glasses will tell the difference between a cold dummy and a warm body. No motion or heat sensing alarms in the maintenance spaces ? I could understand that in alcatraz days when those things were rare / expensive, but these days they cost next to nothing,
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday June 22 2015, @11:11AM
The light wakes the prisoner? Minimize that with a red lens
Or, or...
The light wakes the prisoner? THEY'RE IN PRISON! Tough cookies!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 22 2015, @11:21AM
Yes, there is that. But, I would go with the red lens anyway. Keeping a dangerous man pissed off at you is likely to get you nominated for a Darwin Award. Prisoners aren't going to get a lot of sympathy from me, but intentionally irritating them just isn't smart. You might even bargain with them - move your cot so that I can see your head, and I won't HAVE to shine my light in your face. Or, just swap ends - put your head nearer the bars, and let your feet hang off far end of the cot, and I can see you. But, red lens for me. Besides which, I learned in the navy that night time red lighting helps your night vision. If I'm shining a bright white light ten to twenty feet from me, and I hear a noise fifty feet away, I won't be able to SEE in the shadows that far away. With the red light, I can glance away from the cell I'm lighting up, and still see pretty well.
So, call that red lens "self defense" for more than one reason.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 22 2015, @03:49PM
You know that hindering people from sleep is a form of torture?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday June 22 2015, @04:26PM
Yes. This is not.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Monday June 22 2015, @04:24PM
Regular light sweeps hinders good sleep. And a ton of muscles being grumpy next morning might translate to dead guard the next day. Being right doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good decision.