Four inmates escape, go on beer run

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NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ROGERSVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- The party's over for four inmates accused of going on a beer run after the jail's doors were accidentally left unlocked.

The men were charged Monday with escape and bringing alcohol into a jail.

The breakout occurred Thursday night after cellblock doors at the Hawkins County Jail were left unlocked and a faulty control panel failed to alert jailers, Sheriff Warren Rimer said.

Two of the inmates walked out through a fire exit, leaving the door propped open with a Bible, and made a hole in the exercise yard fence. They walked to a market, bought some beer and returned to the jail to share it with other prisoners. When the booze ran out, the other two inmates made another beer run to a different store.

Authorities believe the inmates bought more than two cases of beer in all.

"I guess they thought if they came back they wouldn't be charged with escape," Rimer said, "but they were wrong."

The store visits did not raise alarm because the inmates were wearing street clothes borrowed from other prisoners. The crowded jail does not have enough orange jumpsuits to go around.
 
I went to high school in Rogersville, and know Sheriff Rimer personally. I am not one bit surprised by this. The back door to the jail is routinely propped open with a rock because of poor ventilation.
 
---Reuter's Update----

Sources say the inmates would not have been caught had they not decided to build a 'beer-a-mid' with the empty cans.

beeramid.jpg
 
B double E Double R U N

BeerRun, a classic song on the Bob and Tom show, sung by Todd Snider.
 
Here's the follow up on that story:


Hawkins sheriff says breakout spotlights weaknesses at aging jail





ROGERSVILLE - If one good thing came out of last week's Hawkins County Jail breakout, it may have been the attention brought to the county's aging, overcrowded jail, Sheriff Warren Rimer said Wednesday.

Although Rimer admits that the breakout was initiated by human error, it was a malfunctioning electronic control panel that failed to alert jailers that a fire emergency door was open. Four inmates escaped from the jail, only to return after purchasing beer at two local markets.

The Hawkins County Jail opened in 1977 with a capacity of 66. In recent years, however, the jail population has neared 100 at times and was at 83 the day of the escape. It had lowered to 75 by Wednesday.

"What we really need is a bigger jail," Rimer said. "The population will be high for a couple of weeks or a month, and then it will die back down for a while and then go right back up. It fluctuates.

"We're going to need more space soon."

Rimer said he's not sure if an addition to the current jail is needed or if the county needs to consider building a whole new jail. He said he would recommend a study to determine the best course of action.

"Things break down over time, and this jail has been here for a long time," Rimer said. "It's going to have to be looked at in the near future - at least an addition."

If the old jail was kept and an addition built, a renovation of the existing facility would also be needed. The electronics malfunction last week was a good example of how aging and deterioration can compromise jail security, he said.

But funding a jail addition/renovation or new jail project could be a problem. The 2004-05 fiscal year budget to be considered by the Hawkins County Commission Monday calls for a 15 cent property tax, with most of the new money allocated for the school district, solid waste equipment purchases, a courthouse renovation, and county employee pay raises.

Two cents of the increase - or about $120,000 in annual revenue - has been earmarked to build up the fund balance.

County Commissioner Virgil Mallett, who sits on the Budget Committee, said Wednesday that last week's jailbreak was a "wake-up call" that something needs to be done about overcrowding and jail deterioration. He said it's possible that funding could be found in the proposed budget to begin a study on a jail project this year if the County Commission gives its approval.

But it's a slow process, and Mallett said he wouldn't expect any overnight remedies.

"It takes something like this for us to realize that the jail does get overcrowded," Mallett said. "It makes you wonder if it can happen again. I think the commission is going to have to take a look at this and see what can be done to prevent it from happening in the future."

The breakout occurred last Thursday night after a jailer accidentally stuck a key in the fire emergency lock release. When the jailer reactivated the locks, the control panel indicated the doors were locked again, which wasn't the case.

About 11 p.m., two inmates slipped out a fire exit into the exercise yard, made a hole in the fence, and walked to a nearby market to buy beer. They then returned to jail with the beer. An hour later, two more inmates left the same way, went to a different market, and bought more beer to bring back to the jail.

All four inmates were charged with escape and introduction of intoxicants into the jail. The sheriff's department is also investigating the possibility of charging other inmates in the incident
 
Man, I'd love to be in the courtroom when these escape trials come up.

How can those inmates be found guilty of escape if they just went out for beer and then returned to party in their cellblock?

Normally, I'd side with the jail authorities in a case like this, but they're the ones who made the whole thing possible by their own admission, and now they want to charge the inmates for nothing more than walking to the store for some beer?

Oh My!! :cheers:
 
Maybe someone should tell Bogey so he can advise the inmates to go to the alcohol web site to see if they have a drinking problem...
 
Thanks for the advice barely. Maybe I will try to get them to go to the site, even though I think that they have bigger problems than drinking....if they escaped from prison, why the hell did they go back? There is another website that I heard of called: www.stupidityscreening.org.
 
I don't know about their State laws but in NC if a prisoner escapes but returns of their own free will within X number or hours there is no added sentence. We've had similiar here in NC. A female at the Rocky Mount facility called a taxi. She went to town, got drunk, got (well you know) and then took a taxi back to prison. Quite funny if you think about it. And, I'd rather they do a beer run than engage in some of the other activities they do in order to get high... :huh:
 
Well at least the cops didn't have to pick them up and take them to jail. So they could sleep it off in the drunk tank. :lol:
 
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