Maine man escapes from prison

February 28, 2002 7:03 AM

Maine man escapes from prison by having another man trade places with him while out on work-release. The next night he gets into a bar fight and is arrested, by some rather confused cops.
posted by damn yankee (7 comments total)

Will they let him spend the rest of his days on a farm?
posted by Spoon at 7:48 AM on February 28, 2002

"I spend a lot of energy figuring out how to keep people from breaking out," said Sheriff Mark Dion..."

The guy cut through a prison window that was secured with a screen... Granted it was a 2nd floor window. Reminds me of the Japanese prison with paper walls from the Simpsons...
posted by jeffhoward at 8:48 AM on February 28, 2002

"They couldn't understand why a guy named Stratton would have "Geisinger" tattooed in big letters across his back."

aside from the screen cutting, i think this was my favorite bit of unintentional humor from the article.
posted by damn yankee at 8:50 AM on February 28, 2002

This is not the first time the Cumberland County Jail has had problems with people easily escaping from the facility. A few years ago, shortly after the new jail opened, one inmate more or less walked out the door while nobody was paying attention.
posted by briank at 8:59 AM on February 28, 2002

Jeff;
you hit it right on. I read that line and was laughing outloud at the stupidity of the statement. I wonder if they read it back to him to see if he wanted to revise it.
posted by a3matrix at 9:07 AM on February 28, 2002

This happens more often than you'd think. There was even a case in Washington, DC a year or so ago where they found a guy who'd been paid to take a prisoner's place for something like 18 months.
posted by dhartung at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2002

my favorite line was the last:

"If it was his intent to be here, we'd like to cement that intent with a longer stay."

how boring would your life have to be to go to jail for someone else?
posted by th3ph17 at 4:58 PM on February 28, 2002