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Friday, September 27, 2013

Prisoner Calls Police from Unguarded, Running Van to Report Other Prisoners Who Fled



A cogent, real-life demonstration of the perils of the “prisoner’s dilemma,” and the pure buffoonery of a couple of private prison guards, played out in Oklahoma the other day.  ABC News reports that eight prisoners were being transported and had stopped at a hospital. The guards left the van running (to keep the guards air conditioned) and left the keys in the ignition, with no guard left behind.  Two prisoners jacked the van and drove off.  They got a mile down the road and took off on foot.
 
Other prisoners on the lam
There, they faced a dilemma.  If they went, they had to trust the other prisoners not to turn them in.  If the other prisoners did turn them in, they might get lighter sentences.  Or, they might run themselves. This being such an odd situation – brought on by such buffoonery by the guards leaving eight unsupervised prisoners (albeit shackled) in a running van, there wasn’t likely much time to poll the other guys who weren’t in on the jump.

Joshua Silverman looked at what faced him, found a cell phone – probably left behind by the buffoon guard, and called 911.  He was afraid that he’d get shot by police responding to a report of escapees. He was right to be scared.  Police tracked down the two guys who had escaped.

The irony here is that Silverman was up on serious charges: bail jumping, drug manufacturing and disorderly conduct.  The guys who ran were in for relatively light stuff: assault (maybe not that light) and nonpayment of child support.  The child support dodger can now expect lots more time on his sentence. The guards can expect to find other jobs with less personal responsibility and decision-making. 

(Photo credit: "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," Cohen Brothers)

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