Just a hypothetical, friendly poll. Nothing really prompted this, I’m just curious. So, if you were given a life sentence in prison, would you attempt to escape?
For me? Most definitely. And after my first failed attempt, when they let me out of solitary confinement, I would try it again. What have you got to lose?
Sure. How else would I track down the one-armed man?
Stranger
It wasn’t me. It was the one armed man.
Why not? Might be fun.
I’d attempt it ASAP, too - don’t want to end up like poor old Brooks.
At the very least planning an escape gives you something to do, occupies your mind trying to think of escape routes during the time you are locked in your cell. I suppose even if you are sentenced to life you might opt to go for the route of model prisoner in the hope of being release, after all life doesn’t always mean life (especially in the U.K. where it is more like 25 years or something). So it isn’t really true to say you have nothing to lose, you can lose any chance of getting released.
Depends on what I’m being sent to prison for.
If it was something I didn’t do, and/or I still had hope of release, then I might.
If it was some crime I did commit, and I felt bad about—say, I got drunk and ran over a bunch of blind orphans, or something—I’d probably just kill myself out of guilt.
I didn’t do whatever it is, so I’d wait for the system to rectify its mistake. The system does work . . . . doesn’t it? ::insert “innocent” smiley here::
“Either get busy living or get busy dying.” (Just watched it the other day.)
I’d try to escape but all the good tricks have been used. I think.
I think your only true shot would be between the sentencing and the iron door being slammed shut behind you. We are talking wrestling a gun away from a court officer, winging shots all over the room, and diving out the nearest window. Depending on what floor the court room is on, your next move is a car hijack, and a high speed get-a-away. If you’ve got the balls for all this, go for it. It’ll be a cool story on the 6 o’clock news.
Better still, the old addage…if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
If I accepted the sentance then no, If I did not all bets are off.
Not only would I escape I would grow a beard and gain 50 or 60 lbs. I would also color my hair gray and try to pass off as a confused old man.
As my best friend is a Corrections Officer at the Attica prision in New York if heard some wild stories. Breaking out of a max security prision would be next to impossible.
Nice intellectual exercise. IF I really landed in prision. He said the average smarts is pretty low. Three main reasons, first they commited a crime. Then they got caught. Then they got convicted. Best bet is to bugger up the system in one of those three steps before you are behind the big walls.
I don’t recall a single escaped-prisoner story that didn’t end with the escapee either being caught or killed within a week. So no, I wouldn’t try for an escape: instead, I’d try for early release.
Daniel
people have escaped from prison; the ones who don’t get caught again are pretty small in numbers. i think this is because they revert to their old ways…and getting ibnvolved back with drugging and drinking will get you noticed real fast. Are there any criminals who had a plan, with help on the outside 9and sfe deposit boxes stuffed with cash) who were able to 'disappear"? Whitey Bulger (of the Boston Mob0 comes to mind…but he was never arrested. Still, staying on the lam for 10+ years is a pretty hard thing to do.
If I escaped from a max-security prison, i think i’d go to some quiet South American country, where I could live outy life without attracting attention…like Ronny biggs 9of the Great Train Robbery).
Depends on the prison. I mean, 20-to-life in the Martha Steward Prison For Sexually Frustrated Females might not be so bad… 
Seems to me that there’s two major problems:
Most people who escape are going to end up, eventually, at the homes of family members or friends who can help them out. Unfortunately, the state tends to know about these familymembers, and in many, many cases the prisoners are caught because the state has staked out these folks.
The state has got wayyyy more resources than I do. I may be smart, but the state employs smart people too, and the state’s geniuses will be working with other geniuses, with millions of dollars in equipment, to find me. I don’t give myself very good chances of getting away.
Daniel
I agree. Operating on the assumption that I was innocent of whatever I’d been convicted of, I’d probably be naive enough to believe that someday, somehow, wrongs would be righted and my name would be cleared. I’d probably just sit in my cell using every legal means in my disposal to fight.
Unless, of course, I’d been sentenced to death row in Texas…
Never be afraid to share your dreams with the world. Because theres nothing the world likes better than the taste of really sweet dreams.
-despair.com
At a prison, have you ever noticed the separate rows of razor wire you’d have to cross before you got to the fence, which itself has barbed wire and more razor wire on it? Would you rather get three meals a day and some exercise and watch TV, or bleed to death, assuming you could avoid the gunfire, on the way out, before you got to the top of the fence?
I vote for the former. It certainly would be no picnic, but it would have to be better than the alternative!
Notice my name is Panzram.
Hell, in the time you’ve taken making topics like this, I could have killed ten men!
<Carl Panzram joke>
No, but I would try to kill myself. Does that count as “escape”?