ESCAPE
The criminal offense of fleeing legal custody with-
out authority or consent.
In order for an individual who has been
accused of escape to be convicted, all elements of
the crime must be proved. Such elements are
governed by the specific language of each state
statute. The general common-law principles
may be incorporated within a statute, or the law
may depart from them in various ways. Federal
statutes also make it a crime to escape from fed-
eral custody.
Ordinarily, the crime of escape is committed
either by the prisoner or by the individual who
has the responsibility for keeping the prisoner in
custody. The custodian of the prisoner is not
ordinarily a warden for the entire prison, but is
generally the person who has immediate respon-
sibility for guarding the prisoner. Certain states
currently punish negligent guards administra-
tively, such as by divesting them of their rank or
seniority, or by firing them.Criminal punishment
is generally reserved for guards who actively
cooperate in facilitating a prisoner’s escape.
An escape takes place when the prisoner is
able to remove himself or herself from the law-
ful control of an authorized custodian. An indi-
vidual can be found guilty of escape even in the
event that his or her initial arrest was wrongful,
since an unlawful arrest must properly be
argued in court. The theory is that in order for
the process of justice to operate in an orderly
manner, a prisoner must not be given the privi-
lege of determining whether or not he or she
should be confined. If an arrest is totally unlaw-
ful, however, an individual cannot be guilty of
escape. This might occur, for example, if a store
security guard has no grounds to arrest a
shoplifter but does so anyway.
In order to prove that a criminal escape took
place, it is ordinarily unnecessary to show that
the accused party was actually confined within
prison walls. Once an arrest has taken place, the
prisoner cannot leave of his or her own volition.
Frequently, the degree of the crime is increased
when the escape is from a particular kind of
confinement. For example, the law might deal
more harshly with an individual who escapes
from armed prison guards while working on a
chain gang than with an individual who runs
away while an arresting officer interrogates wit-
nesses. In other jurisdictions, the degree of
criminal escape is dependent upon the nature of
the crime that initially precipitated the pris-
oner’s confinement.
It is ordinarily necessary to prove that an
escaped prisoner was actually attempting to
evade legal confinement. For example, if the
prisoner went to the wrong place by mistake, he
or she will probably not be found guilty of a
criminal escape.
Other crimes are related to escape, such as
the offense of aiding escape, which is commit-
ted by a person who, for example, smuggles a
prisoner out of jail. Ordinarily a conviction for
aiding escape is punishable by a sentence for
the number of years specified by the criminal
statute.
In some states it is a separate crime to harbor
or conceal an escaped prisoner. To obtain a con-
viction against the individual accused of this
crime, it must be shown that the individual
believed that he or she was aiding an escaped
prisoner with the intent to help him or her get
clear of lawful custody. It does not constitute a
defense to assert that the prisoner never should
have been arrested.
Prison breach is an escape committed
through the use of force and is more heinous
than simple escape. It is not a separate crime,
however, and the state may regard it as a more
serious degree of criminal escape.
An attempt to commit escape or any of the
related crimes is punishable, even though such
