Six high-risk Canadian prisoners, four of whom were facing murder charges, escaped from a maximum security prison in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan last month. How? Well, for four months, they used nail clippers and other makeshift tools to remover a heating grill and a steel plate so they could access a exterior brick wall and bust out, according to Reuters.
It went down like this. Several prisoners would play cards at a strategically placed table blocking the guards’ view, while others dug away at the wall, finally breaking through with a shower rod. Just like in the movies, they used braided bedsheets and blankets to make their way down the side wall, and finally escape.
“Idle hands are the Devil’s tools,” claims the Saskatchewan government report, referring to the fact that prisoners at Regina Correctional Center have very little to do.‚ “They tend to gravitate toward doing whatever they can get away with.”
The report made 23 recommendations for improvements in security for holding such prisoners, all of which were accepted. The government will spend $68 million to construct a new facility, and another few million to bolster security in existing facilities.
According to the report, more than 80 prisoners had supervised the six men without seeing anything. Some thought something was being planned, but none of the guards intervened or asked the prisoners anything.
Pretty ridiculous. If you’re a prison guard and you have a bad feeling about some murder victims, you should probably act on it. You know, for the good of the people and stuff.