Two murderers escape from Iowa prison

[Grimm]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/16/kil....ap/index.html

Apparently some genius decided that a detection system consisting of a taut wire was a more cost efficent way to keep convicts in the prison... as opposed to actualy manning guard towers.

Anyone with any experience in a prison system knows that guards keep people from escaping, not "systems". Systems help guards control a prison. Without guards, a system is worth absolutely nothing. Well not nothing, someone has to spend an extra 15 minutes planning an escape to account for it.

I hope the politicians who decided that saving a few bucks on proper guards are held accountable by the voters for any lives that are lost due to this escape.

[PrObLy]

It's deer hunting season around here.

They won't make it far before they get a couple arrows through their chests.

[Grimm]

It's deer hunting season around here.

They won't make it far before they get a couple arrows through their chests.

They took a car, they aren't running through the woods. They are probably already in Canada.

[PrObLy]

They took a car, they aren't running through the woods. They are probably already in Canada.

I was just going by what I've seen on the local news around here. I hadn't heard any mention about a confirmed carjacking or robbery until I re-read the end of the article you posted.

Fort Madison is in the middle of nowhere, I'd say close to 200 miles away from the nearest densely populated area. So, if they by chance didn't get that car they are definitely in hick territory.

[bachviet]

What's up with all the convicted murderers escaping from prisons lately?

[Grimm]

What's up with all the convicted murderers escaping from prisons lately?

Well, if you were a convicted murderer and you had the chance, whould you hang oround all day in the prison or make a run for it?

We keep cutting budgets and a favorite place to cut is our prison system. Or at least maintain the budget where it is at while the system grows. For some reason people think that the money is spent on prisoners, it's not. It is spent on professional guards who do a very dangerous job for fairly low pay.

[PrObLy]

*Update*

They found one of the escapees this morning in southern Illinois. Turns out he was taking a nap just a bit outside of another maximum security prison.

This guy said he was trying to get to New Orleans so he could fit in with the turmoil going on down there.

I guess those prisoners keep up on current events?

Here's the full article:
DesMoinesRegister

They released the license plate number of the other car that was stolen too.

What confuses me (about as much so as how they had so little manpower in a "maximum" security prison) is why they didn't put the license plate and car all over the news so people could be on the lookout for it.

[DaFunkyUnit]

What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area.

[Thesifer]

Two murders escape from Iowa prison

I could have sworn two dead people had escaped when I read the title of the thread, boy was I wrong.

[Mommypooh]

Yeah I know all about the Prison's not having enough money, my uncle is a prison guard. But I also think that they should not have all the luxurys that they have. IMHO that is the biggest joke they have better lives and enjoy all the same freedoms execpt the right to vote and the right to bear arms. THey have cable TV something I don't even have, they have fully stocked weight rooms, they don't have to work, come on lets start taking things away and acctually pay the people who work there some decent wages.

[Thesifer]

Yeah I know all about the Prison's not having enough money, my uncle is a prison guard. But I also think that they should not have all the luxurys that they have. IMHO that is the biggest joke they have better lives and enjoy all the same freedoms execpt the right to vote and the right to bear arms. THey have cable TV something I don't even have, they have fully stocked weight rooms, they don't have to work, come on lets start taking things away and acctually pay the people who work there some decent wages.

Watch the Episode of Wierd US and You may think differently about some prisons. Check out the prison in Phoenix with the Sheriff of Maricopa County in charge. That prison is definately not somewhere I would want to be.

[Grimm]

In Texas they used to have weight sets. Not any more.
They aren't allowed to smoke, the weights are (for the most part) gone. There is TV, but it is one TV for about 140 inmates and they only get basic channels.
The clothes they wear are manufactured by the state prison system in workshops using free inmate labor.
Same with the cleaning supplies and most of the furniture.
There are some generic type board games they can use (think checkers), but those are donated.
There is no A/C, and this is in Texas, but if the temps go over a certain (very high) level ice is distributed. This is federaly mandated.
There is rec equipment, such as basket balls and handballs for the rec yard. But it is from a very limited budget. The equipment is treated very well, because it is only replaced at a certain rate. No one wants to be the guy that destroyed the last basketball (they probably wouldn't kill him, but dayly beatings untill there was another basket ball would probably be an option).

Inmates are allowed as much tear gas as they would like to breath though. There are plenty of handcuffs and leg irons for them to wear too. They get three square meals a day out of the cheapest food money can buy.

The inmates in Texas don't get any luxuries. It sucks to be them, but they have it comming.

[esme]

some of the stuff that these guys/gals get is from family members .....either money or goods is what they send .....

[kgsilvas]

UPDATE: The second of two inmates who used a homemade grappling hook to escape from prison was captured Friday after four days on the run, and Gov. Tom Vilsack suspended at least one state employee in connection with the breakout.

Vilsack said more suspensions were expected as state officials investigate how the inmates, using a rope fashioned from upholstery webbing from the prison furniture shop, were able to scale a 30-foot stone wall without officials noticing.

Robert Joseph Legendre, 27, was captured without incident at a truck stop in Steele, Mo., where he was found sitting in a stolen pickup truck. The other escaped convict, Martin Moon, 34, was arrested Thursday, near Chester, Ill.

Legendre, convicted of attempted murder, had been seen repeatedly at the truck stop since Thursday afternoon. He had asked customers for gas money.

"The girls were making him a sub, and he said he was a state convict," said Vivian Hannaford, a cashier. "We thought he was kidding."

Moon and Legendre escaped from the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison on Monday. A corrections official has said the guard tower near the spot where the inmates went over the wall was unmanned at the time because of budget cuts.

The governor would not identify the suspended employee or his position, but said there was a failure to account for inmates in the prison industries, where Moon and Legendre had been working.

Moon was serving a life sentence for murder in the 1990 shooting of his roommate during a drug deal. Legendre was convicted in the kidnapping and attempted murder of a Las Vegas cabbie.

Investigators believe the two men immediately split up after escaping. They were captured about 125 miles apart.
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051119/...tkBHNlYwM3MTg-