Prison Break - True Stories of the World's Greatest Escapes by Paul Buck

Author:Paul Buck [Paul Buck]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781857827606
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2012-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

VIII

Forcing the Issue

It is not difficult to escape from an open prison, or any other low-security custodial institution. If you are intent on leaving then you will, whether by the front gate or over a fence. Or perhaps by going for a day out, or a weekend’s home leave, and never returning.

Many more do this than might be imagined. At various times the media run scare stories on those who abscond so easily, particularly if they are regarded as ‘celebrity’ criminals. Others, having been imprisoned for a major crime such as murder, are often placed in low-security prisons after a relatively short time, the institution effectively dangling a carrot that may lead them to escape. There are certainly cases where escape from open prison is made for a seemingly valid reason – at least as far as the escapee is concerned.

Mary Bell joined the ranks of the infamous after killing two little boys in 1968, when she was only eleven years old. As her incarceration entered its less severe period, in 1977, she was moved to Moor Court, an open prison set among the hills of Staffordshire. She was being prepared for the parole process, and for becoming a member of society.

Bell was not pleased. She told the governor it wasn’t a “step forward”, and that a less secure facility “was like being sent to prison, because you see you are more in prison when it’s open.” She was convinced she was destined to remain in prison, and that making another life outside was beyond her. Bell was twenty at the time.

The pressure to run away was great. Moor Court was like a four-star hotel set in a beautiful landscape, a millionaire’s country home. It was too much for her, and for other inmates, she believed, who would have to be released eventually to high-rise flats and a more squalid way of life. “It leaves people with a feeling of discontentment, feeling they are better off in prison than outside.”

‘Open prison’ meant what it said. She could go outside, lie on the grass, be alone. She could do anything she wanted, except go beyond the prison perimeters. As the governor explained, “What we are doing is requiring you to make your own decisions.” Bell didn’t know whether she could withstand the pressure of so much trust being invested in her. She warned them she would run away, that she perceived herself to be a ‘lifer’, and that it was all too much for her. She also demanded knockout pills. “I wanted to be blitzed.”

Within three months, in September 1977, she fulfilled her own prophecy and jumped over the fence, heading off across the fields accompanied by one of her new friends, a short-timer. They went on a Sunday, once the visitors started arriving at 1:30pm. They knew that, with so many people walking around the grounds, no one would note they were missing until the next headcount at 6pm.

Once they reached the road, they hitched a lift. The first lift

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