Editorial: Why are prisoners escaping county jails?

What’s up with all the prison escapes?

Pennsylvania has seen a number of high-profile incidents in 2023 when someone in custody has gotten free and gone on the lam.

As of Friday, one was still ongoing. Danelo Cavalcante, 34, is a Brazilian native convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend. He was given a life sentence in August and was waiting to be transferred to a state correctional facility when he broke out of Chester County Prison. The hunt for Cavalcante — who is also wanted in Brazil in connection to another killing — has gone on for more than a week, blocking roads and swarming the suburban Philadelphia area with police.

But these things happen. You can’t predict that someone might shimmy up a wall like a Cirque du Soleil acrobat.

Well, actually, you can when it happened at the same prison just three months earlier. Another inmate, Igor Bolte, did the same spider-like climb in May. His escape didn’t go as easily, and he was back in custody within hours.

Then, there were the two inmates who cut their way out of Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility — also in May. Ameen Hurst was missing for more than a week. Nasir Grant was back behind bars in days.

It doesn’t just happen in the Greater Philadelphia area. In July, Michael Burham spent more than a week in the woods after escaping Warren County Prison in the most cliched way possible — with a rope made of sheets.

Maybe part of the problem is the terminology. The word “prison” is usually associated with state or federal facilities that may have more layers of security than a county jail. Pennsylvania prisons aren’t called prisons, but “state correctional institutions.” More county lock-ups are using the prison moniker. It can’t be ignored that these notable manhunts have all involved county inmates.

But manpower seems like the obvious countermeasure. State and county corrections operations have been noting the need for more staff for years. Both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties have noted low numbers, as has the union representing state corrections workers.

In 2022, John Eckenrode, president of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, called the low numbers a crisis, as well as a danger to both employees and communities.

With four such conspicuous escapes of five prisoners in three months, that seems prescient. It also seems like only a matter of time before another such incident — and before there is a serious consequence.