# Here, let me get the door for you... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758 "2005-11-06T06:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/1 "2005-11-06T06:02:00Z")
[Someone fucked up big time.](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9922969/) > [@](#): > > Convicted killer Charles Victor Thompson remained at large Saturday, authorities said. Thompson, 35, fooled at least four jail employees when he walked out of the Harris County Jail on Thursday. > > \ > > On Thursday, Thompson claimed he had an appointment with his lawyer and was taken to a meeting room. However, the visitor was not Thompson’s attorney. Martin said investigators were questioning the visitor but wouldn’t give details. > > After the visitor left, Thompson removed his handcuffs and his bright orange prison jumpsuit and got out of a prisoner’s booth that should have been locked. He then left wearing a dark blue shirt, khaki pants and white tennis shoes, carrying a fake identification badge and claiming to work for the Texas Attorney General’s office. I’m not sure how big the jail is, but i’m pretty fucking flabbergasted that none of the employees that this guy walked past even recognized him. I guess you don’t need to look at their faces. After all, prisoners are always in orange jumpsuits, right? :rolleyes: Just what the world needs: another double-murderer walking around. ---
**Author:** ![A.R.Cane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@A.R.Cane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A.R.Cane)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/2 "2005-11-06T06:06:53Z")
The more complex the system, the easier it is to defeat. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/3 "2005-11-06T06:38:34Z")
Just because we have locks, doesn’t mean we have to use 'em! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/4 "2005-11-06T07:14:19Z")
Not that the inattention of prison personnel is excusable, but speedy action on a sentence might have resoved the problem at the root, you know. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/5 "2005-11-06T09:06:44Z")
Heh…we had a case here in Aus like that just last week, when a guy on a murder (might have been manslaughter) charge who was remanded in custody was able to walk out of the courtroom because the Magistrate (or it might have been the Clerk of Courts) mixed him up with someone else. The accused had a bugger of a time trying to convince the authorities to let him back into gaol apparently. 😃 Hang on while I go find a cite… ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/6 "2005-11-06T09:55:00Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Hang on while I go find a cite… Bugger. Can’t find one, but I can assure you it was in all the daily newsrags. I just can’t figure out the right search terms. ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/7 "2005-11-06T10:03:46Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > [Someone fucked up big time.](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9922969/)I’m not sure how big the jail is, but i’m pretty fucking flabbergasted that none of the employees that this guy walked past even recognized him. It houses about 9000 inmates when its at full cappacity, over 100,000 a year and employs abou 1500 jailers and deputies. This is houston were talking about, not mayberry. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/8 "2005-11-06T12:05:03Z")
My sense is that when all is done, it will not be a simple case of ‘oops, some folks goofed’ there was planning involved (what did he do when he got out the gates? had to have some means of getting somewhere fast, some ability to get money etc.), and there will be indictments of those involved. there were severall breaches - and to me, it defies reason to believe that simulanteously to that visit, all of the prison personnel involved all picked that particular time to be lax on their job. I could be wrong, but that’s my prediction. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/9 "2005-11-06T15:43:27Z")
> [@bdgr](#): > > It houses about 9000 inmates when its at full cappacity, over 100,000 a year and employs abou 1500 jailers and deputies. > This is houston were talking about, not mayberry. Thakns for the information. So it’s entirely understandable that the people on duty might never have seen this guy before. Still, that’s a pretty serious breakdown in security for a place that, with so many prisoners, should have a very rigorous system in place. ---
**Author:** ![wring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/10 "2005-11-06T17:25:31Z")
sorry, but that doesn’t give them a pass. I’ve visited several facilities, both prisons and jails. the level of security is awe inspiring. to get into the prison, I had to fill out several forms, my background was investigated, including if I was in contact with any prisoner (let alone in that facility) the day(s) of the visit, I am idenified as some one who is going to visit. I hand over my ID to a guard who checks it against me, and against the list. I then go through a security gate,then a metal detector (sensative enough to register the buckle on my shoes). a frisk for weapons, then I turn over my ID to an officer (Picture) who again checks to see it is me. He keeps it, in exchange for a personal alarm (a device I hold onto in case I’m threatened/harmed, an alarm goes off, they know immediately where I am, the place goes into lockdown and all help arrives.) I also have a corrections officer with me - and that’s the level when I"m part of a well organized group. In another facility, I was with the deputy warden and still got frisked and ID’d closely (Both coming and going by the way) note, too, I was a female visiting a male prison, so there was very limited chance that I was a prisoner attempting to escape, yet the security was still in place for me to leave. this guy had ID to leave. SOP that I’ve seen in every facility, one person goes in, gets logged in, then gets logged out when they leave. So, who logged that ID in? how would you allow some one to leave if they hadn’t arrrived? Even in the county faciliity, you don’t get in unless you’ve been checked out and you don’t get OUT unless you were checked in. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/11 "2005-11-06T17:59:38Z")
It boggles my mind too. I work in a max security institution which sees 12,000 different inmates move thru it _every year_. And we’ve been escape-free for at least the last decade, if not longer. Security is job one at our place. If an inmate has had a cardiac arrest, and is actively undergoing CPR while being taken out, he still gets strip-searched and manacled first (we do defibrillate onsite, so there’s no delay in that vital treatment). Visitors at our institution produce ID, get scanned, get stamped, get a visitor ID, get passed thru each of the controlled gates with phone or radio authorization to guards at each gate station, and are observed by regular staff while present there, whether they are repairing a copier, refilling vending machines, or interviewing an inmate. Then the process is repeated on the way out, and if that handstamp is not visible on the scanner on the way out, their departure will be delayed. Regular staff must show their photo ID in order to exit, even if the officer at the gate has known you for decades. Outgoing supply trucks are scrupulously searched before being allowed to leave. It’s very difficult to leave my institution if you’re not authorized to leave it. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/12 "2005-11-06T18:12:18Z")
Cumberland County, NC (where Fort Bragg is located) had a major episode of letting prisoners go before their sentence was complete last year. Story: [http://www.wral.com/news/2815975/detail.html](http://www.wral.com/news/2815975/detail.html) Major staff changes at the jail resulted, with the chief jailer and several deputies fired, though I couldn’t find the follow-up story online. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2005, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-let-me-get-the-door-for-you/329758/13 "2005-11-07T07:05:20Z")
Got him! > **[Escapee's next stop: Death row](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Escapee-s-next-stop-Death-row-1506400.php)** > > Police track down condemned killer Charles Victor Thompson in Shreveport, La., where he is... > [@](#): > > Condemned killer Charles Victor Thompson’s three-day run to freedom ended on a bicycle Sunday night in front of a liquor store in Shreveport, La., police said. > > The Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force got a tip Sunday that led Shreveport police and the U.S. Marshals Service to the 200 block of 70th Street, where officers saw a man they thought to be Thompson on a bicycle talking on a pay phone in front of the liquor store about 8:02 p.m. When asked to identify himself, the man replied, ``You know who I am.’’ > > Asked again, he responded, ``My name is Charles Thompson.’’ > > Thompson, 35, appeared to be intoxicated, and police said they did not know who he was talking to on the phone. He was arrested and booked into the Caddo Parish Jail, where he will be held until he can be returned to Texas, said Lt. John Martin of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. A court hearing is expected to occur today in Shreveport.