Fenceless prisons defended after latest escape
A multistate manhunt for an inmate who strolled out of a Bridgewater prison last week after learning he had been indicted on a rape charge has drawn attention to a little-known fact about minimum-security prisons in the state: Inmates can walk away.
Correctional officials acknowledged yesterday that only one of the nine facilities that house the state’s 1,261 minimum-security inmates is surrounded by a fence, and doors are often kept unlocked to accommodate inmates who come and go to eat, work, exercise, and attend programs.
Let that sink into your brainpan this early Wednesday morning. Only one out of nine minimum security prisons has a gate around it, the bare minimum needed for security. Ideally we'd like to see claymore mines, guard towers with machine guns, and rabid pit bulls with AIDs patrolling the grounds, but barring that a friggin' 10' high fence would be a start.
"But Jay! They're minimum security prisoners! Surely they don't need such drastic measures!"
Well, if these were truly nonviolent offenders and such I might be amenable to discussion. However, Manson Brown, the inmate who walked away from such a minimum security prison, was in jail for armed robbery and home invasion and had a history of escapes. This is not someone who belongs in a facility with no gates. This is someone who belongs locked up tight.
But that's Massachusetts for you - better a violent criminal walk free than have his self-esteem tarnished by a fence...
That is all.
4 comments:
Jay
I worked for 12 yrs in the prison system in SC the policy for our minimum security prisons was you could not use deadly force to prevent escape because by placing him in minimum custody you are basically stating he is not a deadly threat to the community.
A lot of our minimum security inmates often worked in the community at restaurants, doing construction etc....after one of our child molesters was found to be using a state van that he was allowed out in unsupervised to molest children our policy was changed so no violent offenders were allowed at a minimum security prison.don't know what the policies are know as I left that job several years ago but probably havn't changed much.
it sounds like he was classed wrong, and not anyting wrong with the prison per se.
Here in Nebraska, We had a State Senator (Diana Schimek (spit)) crying for "More Beds and More Meds" for these $hitbirds..... basicly a plea for more funding for "Halfway Houses"..... shortly after the program was ramped up, one of their "clients" elected not to check into the "facility" upon his relase from prison, and instead went on a crime spree....
http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/article_73ac30b6-3e6e-5a3a-8019-9d6aa0c00a8b.html
That's the silliest thing I've heard of in a long time.
If they don't need to be locked up why are they even detained?
If they do need to be locked up the prison should look like the insides of some Nazi death camp. Craziness.
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