Update
There have been more escapes from county jails in Pennsylvania this year than in the previous six years combined. While the limited data on escapes makes it difficult to say with certainty that this is more than an anomaly, research on jailbreaks suggests that issues affecting county jails since the pandemic are behind the surge.
“Escapes are a product of two things: motivation and opportunity,” says Bryce Peterson, a criminologist at CNA’s Center for Justice Research and Innovation who has done extensive research on prison escapes.
The Prison Society has tracked eight escapes that have been publicized in media reports this year. In some cases, like when convicted murderer Danilo Cavalcante climbed up a Chester County Prison wall through layers of razor wire, incarcerated people made extraordinary efforts to break out. In other cases, they seized opportunities when jails let their guard down, like when a woman walked out an “unsecured” door in a Philadelphia jail in September.
Peterson says the impacts of staffing shortages and restrictions on programming and family visiting for incarcerated people, which have continued to reverberate since the pandemic, contribute to the motivation and the opportunity that enable prison breaks to occur.
The role of staffing shortages
Prisons in Pennsylvania and across the country shed staff under the strain of the pandemic, and continue to struggle to hire replacements. In the Prison Society’s latest survey of county jails, nearly half of the counties that responded to questions about staffing were short on security staff by at least 10%, and several reported shortages of 25% or more. That means there are fewer watchful eyes to supervise people in custody. But it can also force corrections officers that remain to work excessively long hours, making them less effective at their jobs. In addition, Peterson says that jails desperate to onboard more staff may take shortcuts when hiring or training them.
“So not only is it lower staffing levels in general, but there are some arguments made that the staff that are in place are either less equipped or less alert because of the other stressors that they have from those lower staffing levels,” Peterson says.
Helping people adjust reduces the urge to flee
Aiming to reduce exposure to the coronavirus, prisons and jails in Pennsylvania also suspended family visits and restricted services, programming, and activities for incarcerated people. Some jails still haven’t fully restored visiting opportunities. Five jails that responded to the Prison Society survey were not allowing family visits, and only two jails offered contact visits, where people can meet face-to-face without a barrier separating them. Peterson says that even where visiting and programming have been restored, the effects of being deprived of them for so long may linger. Family visits, in particular, have been shown to lower stress levels and rule-breaking behavior, Peterson says, and generally help people adjust to prison life.
“It just stands to reason that if you're better adjusted to prison life, better situated there and more happy,” Peterson says, “you're going to be less motivated to try to escape.”
What jails can do to prevent escapes
Peterson says jails should undertake long-term efforts to hire more well-trained security staff. In the meantime, some may consider policies or technologies to enhance security. But clamping down on life behind bars can undermine the goal of reducing escapes, Peterson says, if it reduces access to things that help promote incarcerated people’s wellbeing. Instead, jails should work to increase access to programming and strengthen family connections through in-person visits, phone calls, and the like.
“Those are all important things that could actually improve the safety and security of the facility because you're helping people adjust better to prison life, and hopefully, in the long term, helping them to stay out of prison,” Peterson says.
