Escape bid at Kingston Pen a bust

Poorly planned escape bid at Kingston Pen a bust

MATTHEW TREVISAN
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
August 20, 2008

[Kingston, Ontario]

Two federal inmates trying to escape from Kingston Penitentiary managed to get onto the roof of the maximum security prison and attach a homemade grappling hook to the razor wire near the walls before getting caught by officials last week.

The attempted escape happened at about 1:30 p.m. Friday, according to a Correctional Service of Canada statement. Kingston police say an inmate in his early 40s and another in his late 50s had somehow made their way unnoticed to the rooftop of the gymnasium, about 12 metres away from the prison’s west wall near Lake Ontario.

From the roof, the two convicts tossed a homemade grappling hook – fashioned out of metal clamps and attached to a rope made of wire and shoe laces – toward the wall, where it caught on the razor wire.

But that’s where the duo’s plan seemed to end, police say.

“They did not leave the building rooftop,” said Constable Michael Menor. “They never made any attempt to because they would have never been able to get through the razor wire.”

And even if they did, Constable Menor said, they would have likely broken their legs after plunging about 10 metres to the ground.

“There was just no way they would have done it,” he said.

According to Corrections Canada, “Immediate staff response prevented the escape.”

The agency also said the safety and security of the public was not at risk but would not comment any further because of a police investigation. The penitentiary has been under lockdown since Friday.

Constable Menor said charges are pending against the two men, and Janine Chown, Corrections Canada spokeswoman, said the agency will also investigate the incident.

Since it opened in 1835, there have been 29 recorded breakouts at Kingston Penitentiary, said David St. Onge, curator of Canada’s Penitentiary Museum.

The last inmate to attempt one was in 2000, Mr. St. Onge said, when a man was caught trying to escape from the visitors area.

The last person to escape was Tyrone Conn in May, 1999. He used a dummy in his cell to trick guards into believing he was still there, hid within the walls of the prison shop, then escaped using a ladder, hook and rope. Two weeks later, Mr. Conn killed himself with a shotgun when cornered by police.

Until that point, the last escape from Kingston Penitentiary was in 1958.