The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC J. HAsKM. Direcsor.
Washington, D. G.
JAu-BREAKERS.


escapes seem to be unusually numerous
of late. One man miraculously de-
parts from Jail with three fellow
prisoners, and no clue is found. At q
reformatory several desertions lead to
the suspicion that a key is being circu-
lated among the inmates. And there
are similar stories in the papers almost
every day. They suggest that jail
| breaking is a frequent occurrence.
/ We put the question up to Earl
/ budding, head of the Prisoners Relief
society, and got this reassuring answer:
There Is no great menace from es-
capped conv:cts. There are four mil
lion inmates in penal institutions in
this country. Half a million men,
women. boys and girls are convicted of
some offense every year, and as many
more are freed from prisons. Com
pare these big figures with the aver
age number of escapes a year, which is
almost five hundred.
Five hundred convicts break away,
but Doctor budding explains that where
even fifty years ago they might have
stood fair chance of permanent free
dom, today they are often retaken i'm
mediately. A comparatively few years
| ago refugee had a chance to cover
his tracks and lose his identity in the
time it took to notify sheriffs> and
spread word of the escape. Now
cables, the telephone, railroads even
airplanes, if necessary, can be called on
i to speed in pursuit.
II ne is not taken at once, the con-
victs manner betrays him. Publicity
may have gone ahead of him, he fears,
| and SO he is wary of every one he
meets. The man across the lunch
room table who inquiries between bites
or sandwich where he works may be
detective. A policeman looks at
MN and he is thrown into a panic.
Eventually he gives himself away in
his efforts to be inconspicuous.
Getting Back In =
| Nearly every day." says Doctor
type come to me for help because the
situation is too much for them. There
| was a typical case just a few days
ago. The man came in and asked to
| talk with me. He kept looking at me,
trying to decide whether he could
trust me with his secret.
well ; said to him, when did
you escape?'
THE blow nearly knocked him over.
He had no idea he showed his fear so
plainly. Then he looked relieved. We
| talked the matter over, and I showed
him that the only thing to do was to
go back and finish his term. Then
he could walk the streets a free man.
You aren't free now 1 told him.
You don't dare talk to anyone
/ Ildl tIue, ne Sa1Q. But II i
go back I'll be put in irons, and 1 was
a trusty.'
':.fNo, not if you give yourself up
1 told him. L will write to the super
intendent and explain that you are
coming back voluntarily, and ask him
to give you your old place."
| The man agreed, and here Is the
(, surprising part Of the story, to one
who does not understand prisons and
prisoners as DR.. budding does. The
man was not put under guard or hand
! cuffed, DR.. budding told him to come
back at a certain time. When he came
he was given a ticket to the Jail town
| and a letter which had been obtained
| from the superintendent of the prison.
saying that he was travelling by per-
| mission of the prison authorities. The
| convict was to carry this letter with
him, for he was wanted by the police
| and might have been arrested on his
| way. This man did not make any at
tempt to use either the letter or the
ticket to escape. The adventure was
| over for him.
Something like this happens about
q hundred times year. Escaped pris-
oners from all parts of the country
come in to an office of the Prisoners
Relief Society or write to DIR. budding
to know what to do. He tells them,
as ne told the man just mentioned,
that they cannot expect to live honor
ably or in peace until they have been
| freed by the state, and then, when he
has their permission, he does what he
can to make the return to prison easy
Tor them. He says that he has never
pealed to him of the wisdom of this
course-even in cases of escapes from
life Imprisonment.
He Lost His Nerve,
Such an instance occurred when
DOCTOR budding was on western trip
some time ago. A man read in the
newspaper of the work of this Doctor
budding, who had been a prisoner
himself, and came to see him. The
man explained that fifteen years be-
lore he had, in fit of anger, killed
a girl who refused to marry him. He
was given life imprisonment, but
served only a few months when
friends, who were indignant at what
they felt was on unjust sentence,
helped him to escape. He went west
and built up q business and a name
for himself. But the shadow of fear
was always worrying him. After con-
sulting Doctor budding. he went back
to prison. He served four years and
was pardoned.
AS Doctor budding says, escapes of
any kind are rare, and the romantic
escape, from prison at least, is sell
dom heard OF any more. William
Hohenzollern, interned in Dutch
castle, apparently never thinks of put
ting poison in the guards afternoon
tea or of burrowing his way out of
the grounds of his estate, as any high
spirited monarch used to do in like
circumstances. Louis Napoleon got out
ola similar awkward situation quite
naturally by strolling out of prison
disguised in workman's clothes. and
carrying a plank on his shoulder.
Still more ingenious was the famous
Casanova. He was not of royal blood,
| hllf his exit from a nriSOn cell over the
room where the dreaded Inquisition
met is one of the most famous es-
capes in history. Casanova's escape
has been spread out over several vol
umes. The most amusing incident is
| that in which he desires to send a
| crowbar to a fellow-prisoner. He
planned to conceal the crowbar in a
| big Bible. but it stuck out a few
inches beyond the covers, so he ar
ranged with the jailer-who was