Opinion ID: 1498148
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Second Degree Escape

Text: Stout maintains the state failed to prove that Benton County Jail is a correctional facility within the meaning of our Second Degree Escape Statute. Ark.Code Ann. § 5-54-101(1) (1987) defines a correctional facility as any place used for the confinement of persons charged with or convicted of an offense or otherwise confined under court order. A jail is defined as ... a prison; a building designated by law, or regularly used, for the confinement of persons held in lawful custody ... Black's Law Dictionary 748 (5th ed.1979). There was testimony by law enforcement officers that Stout was an inmate of the Benton County Jail. On June 26, 1989, he escaped through an outdoor recreation room, and he was not lawfully released from custody. There was also testimony by the officer who took him back into custody and returned him to the jail. While the state did not put on specific testimony that the Benton County Jail was a correctional facility, logic and common sense fully sustain an inference to that effect. For the reasons stated, the judgment is reversed as to the conviction for breaking or entering and that charge is dismissed; with that exception the judgment and conviction are affirmed.