Being imprisoned can be an extremely difficult and hopeless situation. However, with careful planning, resourcefulness, and determination, it may be possible to escape from prison and regain your freedom. This article will provide information on planning and executing a prison escape, but should only be used for entertainment purposes. Escaping from prison is extremely dangerous and illegal.
Gathering Information and Supplies
The first step in planning your escape is to learn as much as you can about the layout of the prison, routines of the guards, potential exit points and vulnerabilities in security. Be observant during daily activities and conversations to pick up useful details. If you can obtain or create maps and diagrams of the grounds, guard posts, gates, etc, these will help you formulate your plan.
Stockpile any supplies that could aid in your escape over time. Useful items may include civilian clothing, tools, ropes, ladders, food and water. You may need to fashion some improvised devices as well. Gathering these things discretely without raising suspicions will take patience. If you can obtain keys, access cards or other helpful objects from guards or staff, that can provide a big advantage.
Timing Your Escape
Choosing the right time and day for your escape attempt can give you the best odds of success. Periods where security is lower, like during shift changes, meal times or recreation breaks can provide an opening. Times of disturbance in the prison, like riots, fires or fights, can also divert attention from you.
Study patterns and schedules to identify when fewer officers patrol certain areas. Factor in the amount of daylight at different times if you plan on breaching fences or navigating terrain. Choose a time when you are least likely to be discovered missing quickly once you break free.
Acquiring Outside Assistance
While extremely difficult, having outside allies who can provide transportation, shelter, supplies or other forms of support can greatly increase your chances of evading capture after escaping. Communicate discreetly with visitors or utilize coded messages to try to arrange for aid.
If you have access to a phone, you may be able to contact people on the outside willing to help you. Be aware that your calls and messages are likely monitored, however, so use discretion. Offering payment through funds or goods hidden outside of prison may motivate some to assist you.
Surveillance and Timing of Routines
In the days or weeks leading up to your escape attempt, closely study the movements and routines of guards and staff. Note patrol times and patterns. Identify gaps in coverage or lapses in security that you can exploit.
Observe camera placements and look for blindspots. Pay attention to perimeter fencing and natural barriers. Time how long it takes guards to move from one area to another. The more precise your knowledge of routines and the grounds, the better your chances.
Choosing Your Escape Route
Carefully surveying the perimeter and grounds will allow you to identify your best potential escape route. Analyze which direction offers the quickest way to get outside the gates and walls while avoiding detection.
Look for areas where you may be able to scale or cut through fencing more easily. Search for abandoned structures, dug tunnels or other weaknesses that you can take advantage of. Having at least one alternate route planned as a backup is wise.
Employing Distractions and Diversions
Causing distractions or diversions can shift guards’ attention away from your escape activities. Options could include starting fires, triggering sprinklers, causing fights, releasing vermin into the prison, instigating protests or riots, damaging property, sounding alarms and more.
The goal is to create chaos and uncertainty so guards are focused on responding to the disruption rather than your escape. Just be sure not to harm others or cause damage and injuries that could lead to additional charges.
Disguising Your Appearance and Blending In
To avoid being spotted and identified quickly after your escape, disguising your appearance can be very helpful. Obtaining civilian style clothing and hairstyles will allow you to better blend in with the general public.
Creating makeshift disguises using things like hats, glasses, masks or heavy coats can also change how you look. Acting casual and blending in with crowds outside the prison will help prevent initial detection. Abandoning your disguise after getting further from the prison reduces suspicion over time.
Once outside the prison perimeter, you will need to stealthily navigate the surrounding landscape and terrain to get further from the facility without being seen. Stick to cover and move during times of low visibility like nighttime.
Follow valleys, drainages and other depressions to use the terrain to your advantage. Avoid crossing open areas and hilltops where you could be spotted. Have a planned route that leads you to a remote area or getaway vehicle as quickly as possible.
Establishing a Hidden Shelter and Supplies
After initially escaping and putting distance between yourself and the prison, you will need food, water and shelter to survive as you remain in hiding. Establishing hidden shelters and supply caches in remote areas using available natural materials can help you endure being on the run.
Choose locations off trail where you can carefully conceal your campsite. Bury caches of food, medicine, tools, clothing and money in plastic containers to sustain you over time. Be prepared to move camps frequently to avoid detection. Have backup sites planned in case one is discovered.
Strategies for Avoiding Capture after Your Escape
Once you have succeeded in escaping from prison, you will need to utilize additional strategies and extreme caution to avoid being captured and returned to confinement. Here are some methods that can help prolong your freedom.
Laying Low in Isolation
At least initially after your escape, it is wise to lay very low in an isolated location far from population centers. This avoids public exposure while law enforcement searches are at their height. Outdoor areas like forests or mountains where you can hide and forage for basics allows you to avoid being seen.
Have an emergency stash of provisions to wait out the initial manhunt if at all possible. Only venture into towns when absolutely necessary and use great discretion. Staying out of sight will keep you off the radar during crucial early stages.
Changing Your Appearance and Identity
To reduce your chances of being recognized and identified, making significant changes to your appearance and establishing a new identity are extremely helpful. Cut and dye your hair, grow or shave facial hair, get tattoos, purchase colored contacts and update your wardrobe.
Obtain fraudulent IDs, documents and registration under an alias. Alter your body language and adapt your speech patterns and mannerisms. Blend into groups and populations where you do not stand out. A new identity helps detach from your criminal past.
Avoiding Contact with Friends and Family
As difficult as it may be, avoiding contact with friends, family and known associates is highly recommended when trying to remain free. Since law enforcement will monitor those close to you, any contact risks revealing your whereabouts and capture.
Send covert messages through intermediaries if you must, but avoid phone calls, social media outreach, and in person meetings whenever possible. Preventing tips and leads back to you has to be your top priority. Stay strong and keep your distance.
Remaining Mobile and Unpredictable
Staying on the move and maintaining an unpredictable, erratic routine also helps prevent capture. If you establish patterns or stay anywhere too long, you increase the chances of being located as law enforcement closes in.
Continually change locations day to day and rotate between different means of transportation. Vary the timing of your movements so your trail is hard to discern. Keeping authorities constantly reacting to your changing locations increases your odds of evading them.
Acquiring Funding and False Documents
Obtaining cash through pre-planned methods and acquiring false identification credentials are essential tasks when escaping custody. Funding enables transportation, lodging, supplies and living expenses. Fake IDs, registration and passports assist in concealing your identity.
Arrange for outside associates to leave money or items to fence at hidden pickup points. Create fraudulent documents yourself or utilize underground services. Be sure to avoid using bank accounts, employment and identities traceable back to your real self at all costs.
Notable Prison Escapes and Lessons Learned
Here are some infamous prison escapes from history along with the creative methods, planning and assistance that were utilized in these cases:
Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary Escape – June 1962
- Escaped: Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin, John Anglin
- Techniques Used:
- Widened vent openings over several months using stolen spoons
- Constructed dummy heads with real hair to fool guards during bed checks
- Crafted raft and life vests from raincoats and contact cement
- Timed escape during foggy night conditions
- Result: Relied on meticulous planning, makeshift tools and opportune weather to effect escape.
Clinton Correctional Facility Escape – June 2015
- Escaped: Richard Matt and David Sweat
- Techniques Used:
- Cut through cell walls over months with tools smuggled in frozen meat
- Traversed underground pipe system and surfaced through manholes
- Acquired maps, clothing and other supplies stashed by prison tailor Joyce Mitchell
- Mitchell also provided car and cash but failed to show up for pickup
- Result: Long term planning and assistance from infiltrated staff aided escape. Lack of transportation hindered success.
Texas Seven Prison Escape – December 2000
- Escaped: George Rivas, Joseph Garcia, Randy Halprin, Larry Harper, Donald Newbury, Patrick Murphy, Michael Rodriguez
- Techniques Used:
- Obtained prison clothing and badges while working menial jobs
- Secretly braided ropes from bedsheets over weeks
- Staged fake scenario to overcome guards and force them to open gates
- Switched to civilian clothes outside prison and escaped in stolen truck
- Result: Inside access, improvisation and bold deception facilitated escape. Group was eventually recaptured one by one after being spotted.
Pascal Payet Helicopter Escapes – 2001, 2003, 2007
- Escaped: Pascal Payet and accomplices in 2001, 2005 and 2007 from French prisons
- Techniques Used:
- Hijacked helicopters, forced pilots to land in prison yards
- Used guns smuggled into prison to force guards to open gates
- Planned escapes to coincide with times of inmate movements
- Result: Bold, daring hijackings relied on smuggled weapons and timing. Multiple successes until increased security prevented fourth attempt.
Evaluating Your Options and Their Consequences
When assessing potential prison escape strategies, it is critical to evaluate the options fully and understand the significant risks and consequences involved:
- Escaping from prison is extremely dangerous and unlikely to succeed long term in most cases. Failure risks extended sentences, increased charges, harm and even death.
- Meticulous planning, timing, assistance and resources are typically required to escape. Most escape attempts fail due to lack of coordination.
- A massive manhunt along with surveillance and wanted alerts make avoiding recapture very difficult, even if you escape initially. Livings indefinitely as a fugitive is extremely hard.
- Any accomplices inside or outside of prison face prosecution for aiding your escape. Outside allies risk long sentences for their involvement.
- Violence, threats, destruction of property, etc. during an escape can add multiple felonies to your charges and sentence if caught again.
- Time added to your sentence, increased security restrictions, and loss of privileges are virtual guarantees if your attempt fails.
- With so many long odds stacked against success, serving your sentence and pursuing legal appeals or pardons is generally the wisest choice.
Is it illegal to escape from prison?
Yes, escaping from prison is a felony crime that can result in years of additional prison time added to your sentence if caught. Escaping federal prison can result in up to 5 more years imprisonment.
What percentage of prison escape attempts are successful long-term?
Only around 1% of prison escapes end with the inmate avoiding capture permanently. Most escapees are caught within hours or days. Prison breaks require very thorough planning and outside assistance to evade authorities for longer.
What happens if you help a prisoner escape?
Any person who aids or assists in the escape of a prisoner can face charges of harboring a fugitive and facilitating escape. These felonies can potentially result in years in prison for accomplices, even if they did not escape themselves.
How often do prisoners escape from maximum security prisons?
Escapes from maximum security facilities are extremely rare due to the heightened security measures and close monitoring of high-risk inmates. Most escapes occur from minimum or medium security facilities with more relaxed controls. No one has escaped from the ADX Florence supermax prison since it opened in 1994.
What are common punishments for a failed escape attempt?
Failed escape attempts typically result in loss of outside visitation privileges, increased cell restrictions, transfer to higher security facilities, and years added to an inmate’s sentence through additional convictions. Failed escapees are also more likely to serve their full original sentences without parole.
Conclusion
Planning and executing a prison escape requires extensive preparations, insider help, resources and perfect timing. Even with meticulous efforts, most escape attempts fail quickly due to the substantial security barriers and massive manhunts that follow. The severe consequences of additional years behind bars and harm to yourself and accomplices make escape an extremely risky path. In most cases, utilizing legal appeals or requesting clemency are far more constructive approaches than prison breaks to pursue freedom justly.