iStockphoto
An inmate somehow escaped prison by hiding inside his cellmate’s bag as he was being released from the facility. Needless to say, prison officials have assured the public that “an internal investigation” into the bizarre escape “has been launched.”
According to French news outlet BFMTV, the 20-year-old prisoner who escaped incarceration from the Lyon-Corbas Prison near Lyons, France was serving multiple sentences. He is also a person of interest in a judicial investigation linked to organized crime.
Prison officials address the escape
“This is an extremely rare event that we have never experienced in this administration and which clearly reveals a whole series of serious dysfunctions,” said the director of prison administration Sabastien Cauwel. He added that the Minister of Justice ordered an inspection into the “accumulation of errors” that led to the prison escape by the General Inspectorate of Justice.
Cauwel added that the prison is severely overcrowded with an occupancy rate of nearly 180%. Over 1,200 prisoner are reportedly being held inside the prison which has capacity for 678 inmates, making the “the working conditions of our officers more complicated.”
He almost got away with it… almost
The prisoner who escaped reportedly hid inside the laundry bag of his cellmate who had completed his sentence and was leaving the facility. BFMTV reports that it took around 24 hours for the inmate’s escape to be noticed by the prison staff. He was eventually re-captured, but the inmate who helped him escape has not yet been located.
“The man who escaped from Corbas remand center was arrested this morning around 6:00 a.m., leaving a cellar in Sathonay Camp,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “No one was injured. His accomplice was not with him and has not yet been arrested. The suspect is currently in custody on charges of escape as part of an organized gang and participation in a criminal conspiracy.”
According to CNN, another French prisoner escaped custody last year when gunmen ambushed a prison convoy transporting him to a jail in Normandy. Reuters reported that he was eventually re-arrested in Romania this past February.