Saturday, January 19, 2008

And you wonder why they don't hold movie nights in prison

A fascinating story that I've been following over the past month looks like it's coming to an end. In a scene straight out of Shawshank Redemption, only the best movie ever, two inmates escaped from a New Jersey State Prison in mid-December by digging through their cell walls and covering up the holes with pictures of bikini-clad women.

After being at large for close to a month, both men were recaptured - one in a basement apartment a mile from the prison and the other the next day in a hotel in Mexico City. They had planned to flee together to Mexico, but one of them hurt his leg leaping to freedom. The New Jersey court ordered both men to be held on $4 million bail. Yeah, like that stopped them the first time.

While it's better for everyone that these scene-stealers were caught, part of me is sad that we'll never know if they'd have been able to make it to Zihuatanejo to meet up with Andy and Red.

-JT

2 comments:

i'm talking louder said...

So basically, this story teaches us that it's possible to make a great movie-esque breakout from prison, with 20 hours lead time before you're discovered missing. (Make sure to stock up on blankets and sheets, though.)

Sheesh - in 20 hours, I'd be halfway to the other side of the world... certainly not a mere mile away from the jail.

i'm talking louder said...

I was going to say that it's obvious these guys weren't the sharpest tools in the tool box, but they DID break out of a maximum security prison.

If it wasn't for the bum leg one inmate got after jumping off the prison roof, who knows where they would have been by now. So the lesson I get out of story is much more elementary - tuck and roll.

-JT