IS IT WORTH IT, REALLY?
Simmons, Paul M. Fitz & Manley, Kenneth
NO one ever looks at the enforced return of an escaped convict from the economic point of view. No, it is always the usual outburst of fear, indignation, thirst for vengeance. An individual...
...A new identity must be manufactured, and if this new set of papers is successful there isn't any problem, for our society runs by paper...
...And what is to be done for the family now...
...Since the man was a credit to his new community, law-abiding and hardworking while he was out, isn't it sensible to expect he will be the same again in his own state...
...he must physically escape the confining boundaries of the prison...
...Well, he has made himself over into just that...
...I.D...
...voices will be heard where none are expected...
...stay out of fights or too-public places and rallies, protests, and parades...
...Does anyone really believe that a man's wife would inform on him to a cop...
...No more family, no old friends...
...Perhaps to those who are serving long sentences, freedom is no longer that valuable, or obeying rules has become so ingrained that they have become automatons...
...If the escapee is successful, the new life begins...
...Imagine for a minute the pressure on an escapee—he is out illegally, while the parolee is not and can find help...
...He may have been considered trustworthy, even have achieved "minimum security" status...
...564 Then there is the "doer," who can no longer gain satisfaction and sublimation from dreams...
...But if the bust comes, as it usually must—because of a set of unforeseen circumstances, perhaps a chance encounter and recognition— who is economically responsible for the family then...
...The model inmate now becomes—and must become —the model citizen...
...But this is not NOTEBOOK nearly as reprehensible as the attitude of the police when they search for the escapee...
...photos are but caricatures of a man, useless as a means of identification...
...He only wants to stay out, to keep hold of the most precious and at times most costly of man's possessions— freedom...
...And when he is in touch-how demeaning it is for his wife and children to have to sneak letters to nonexistent addresses, to receive clandestine phone calls at friends' homes...
...WHY NOT use community-based corrections methods in these cases...
...Or that, if her husband should call, she would immediately contact the FBI...
...This escapee, of course, avoids involvement with the police...
...Is that family also to be punished for harboring a fugitive...
...for isn't it the supposed basic tenet of imprisonment to return the man to society with a better mental outlook...
...There are the men who reminisce about the past, the good times—and there is the dreamer who lays plans for the future, mapping out each step until it is implanted in his mind and he foresees each future move and response down to the last detail...
...The need for all the usual necessities now faces him—he needs a job, an apartment, clothes, credit—and new friends...
...Most of those who "go over the wall" or "walk away" from a minimum security assignment do so on the spur of the moment and are quickly apprehended...
...And there is the "escapist" who is constantly reading all types of literature...
...Then he escapes...
...The escapee has suffered the severance with his past, family, and friends—and even with this new well-arranged life, there still is always the tug of emotions, the longing to be in touch with one's family...
...A guard will look through a peephole that is rarely used...
...So, really, these are not escapes but merely breaches of trust...
...An individual may have spent five, ten, even fifteen years in a prison with an exceptional institutional record of good behavior, may be a hard worker, an amiable person, respected by his fellow prisoners and the administration...
...The wife is told she is a fool to stick to the man: he is no good, he showed no consideration for her nor the children, and he is probably out shacking up right now with another woman...
...Stalk him with stealth and caution...
...The urgency to be free becomes so strong that it hurts...
...His past life and crime is paraded anew before the public, and the model inmate is transformed into a dangerous animal, to be hunted down and captured at all costs...
...They are masters at brow-beating women and children...
...The ingenuous plans boggle the imagination...
...There are the dreamers who use the many avenues of mental escape, aside from the thought of "going over the wall...
...The norm of prisoners on release is a rapid return to crime within two or three months when the going gets the toughest...
...The dream has taken over the dreamer, and for all purposes this man has escaped from his prison environment— even though his physical self is still surrounded by the same old cold and impersonal steel and concrete...
...This will make the man doubly conscious of his precarious position in society, and he will be even more careful, an even better citizen...
...he spends long laborious hours tunneling under the wall— or hiding out within the walls hoping not to be missed at a count and so to have a chance at the wall...
...stay out of lower-class bars...
...unfortunately they usually fail through chance or misfortune...
...If it has to be different to serve the ends of justice, law or society, the amorphous they, then arrange for supervision, where he is...
...If for no other reason than economic expediency alone, leave the man free, where he is...
...The family may relocate on the sly, after a long wait is over and the man has made it...
...He pays taxes...
...Is it worth it...
...If escape is such a serious crime, no matter what the original charge, why are the bails set for it usually so low...
...There is the case of the escapee from South Carolina whom the governor of New Jersey refused to extradite, and another case in which a New Jersey prisoner wasn't returned by New York...
...No way...
...If all goes well and he can last for that first hour, he is free...
...He now is a man who puts as much into the community as he takes out, a law-abiding individual who is no longer a threat to society...
...The escapee now becomes a productive member of society...
...His wellplanned escape will endanger no one, for he has made provisions for a car, for money and clothes...
...He has accepted the fact that he must sever all ties with the past if he is to be successful...
...So they pry and demean, they probe, they push and bother—often without a warrant or legal right...
...This man does not want to hurt people...
...Instead of costing his state the usual $8,000$ 10,000 to keep him incarcerated and another $3,000–$5,000 for the welfare of his family— he is earning money...
...The greatest loss to any man is the loss of his freedom and of the opportunity to make the meaningful decisions concerning his future...
...Job and credit pose the crucial problem: once the job materializes, credit and all the other things fall into place...
...officers and wardens have to be paid to watch the man...
...And now, back to a county jail to await extradition...
...Or if the court is really interested in rehabilitation, leave the man where he is found, under the supervision of the state wherein he has made good under the Interstate Act...
...More and more states now are refusing to extradite escapees who have become useful members of their community...
...Such conditions are not conducive to keeping a family unit together...
...To beat prison security is very difficult, for it is carefully planned, leaving few loopholes...
...Probation is a tool of the court...
...Is another year or two or three riveted to the original sentence any sort of answer...
...Probation should be applied here with stringent parameters if the court deems it necessary...
...he is finger-printed, and his old identity is revealed...
...If the man can be in the free world, working, an accepted and useful addition to the community, what purpose is served by starting again the imprisonment cycle with its huge attendant financial drain and obvious failure...
...And if enough community leaders and social groups spoke out for this new method, there would be even more...
...Yet, the crime rate for escapees nationwide is far below the average of 84 percent recidivism prevailing among parolees or men who have served their maximum sentences...
...Why then is it so amazing and frightening to people that a thinking human being will grasp freedom if given the opportunity...
...Immediately upon the prisoner's escape the prison authorities negate their whole philosophy, denying all they have allegedly done for the man, bent blindly on recapturing him...
...A new town must be found to live in...
...And his past institutional record of good conduct is wiped out in an instant...
...After the butterflies settle down, his sole object is to put miles between himself and the prison and the state the prison is in...
...MOST ESCAPES are made by men with minimum security status...
...If prison served any purpose at all, this man ought to have been on the way to rehabilitation...
...a pole that is to be used to get over the wall will not have been wiped carefully enough and proves too greasy to climb hand over hand— and so the scheme collapses...
...As long as men are locked away, some will try to be free...
...He plans to go over the wall in daring, life-risking, hair-brained schemes...
...Any imprisoned animal, which supposedly cannot even rationalize, will leave the sty, the pasture, or the corral if the bars are left down...
...And so the annual bills to the public start anew...
...There isn't a man in any prison who hasn't hoped, wished, yes, prayed to be free...
...The harshness of such a "fresh start" is one of the main reasons why so few prisoners try to split...
...No matter what the crime, eventually, most likely, the man will have to be released...
...or the man who drowns himself in work or a hobby, or plays all sorts of sports— in short, the man who concentrates his energy on a particular thing to the degree that makes him forget where he actually is...
...So the man who runs must be willing to give up all of his past—just to be free...
...He produces and consumes goods and services...
...Time is a factor, because his fund of money, so hard to come by in prison, is fast running out...
...566 NOTEBOOK...
...Escapes from inside the wall are rare, though attempts will always be made...
...Since time immemorial man yearns to be free...
...If that family is reunited, all is well and good...
...The discovered escapee is arrested...
...shoot him, cage him like a wild beast—but bring him back...
...But there is one kind of escapee who plans all of his moves, and who is fully prepared...
...Only vengeance is served—not understanding...
...To every person whose name is on his old visiting and mailing list they troop, letting each of these people feel their lack of respect and a loss of honor...
...The man who runs right home is usually caught...
...Everything must be new—a fresh start, desperately hung onto...
...He knows he must stay out of trouble, for one fingerprint may bring down his new facade...
...He must escape...
...If the citizens of a state would take the time to inquire exactly how much of their tax dollar goes to support their prisons—a multi-million dollar expenditure for each year— they certainly would be up in arms over this waste of money...
...So: never have too much to drink...
...But when the escapee is back behind the prison wall, society suffers a loss of production and the tax burden is increased in the state of origin...
...After a time this man can no longer grasp reality and becomes submerged in what he is doing—something other than "doing time...
...Though it cannot be freely talked about in the informer-infested society of prisons, escape is uppermost in most of the men's minds...
...The two judges' decisions in these cases, contrary to usual court procedure, are a heartening sign...
...Now, once again, the costs to the public purse start to multiply: there are costs for courts, clothing, food, housing in jail...
...And isn't it the purpose of prison to make him over into a law-abiding man...
...For the man with minimum security status, it is simple to leave prison, and it is hard to understand why so many of these men are staying, not running...
...This escapee rarely uses violenceNOTEBOOK committing another crime is the farthest thing from his mind...
...The state of arrest or the state of origin...
...Now the escapee becomes a member of his new community—accepted as much as any newcomer...
Vol. 21 • September 1974 • No. 4
