2 inmates escape from high-rise jail in Chicago

[Bosonic]

Source: AP

CHICAGO (AP) — Two convicted bank robbers were on the run after using a knotted rope or bed sheets to escape from a high-rise federal jail in downtown Chicago early Tuesday, a week after one of them made a courtroom vow of retribution.

The two men were first unaccounted for during a 5 a.m. head count, but it's unclear they were still inside the 27-story Metropolitan Correctional Center at the time, U.S. Marshal's Service spokeswoman Belkis Cantor said.

Local shop owners say police didn't swarm the area until more than three hours later, when what appeared to be a rope, knotted at six-foot intervals, could be seen dangling from a window about 20 stories up.

Police had said earlier Tuesday that the escape occurred sometime between 5 a.m. and 8:45 a.m.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2-inmates-escape-federal-prison-chicago

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[Agschmid]

1. Can someone physically fit through that window? n/t

[closeupready]

2. Yeah, how is that possible -

anyone who's been by that structure (most Chicagoans) has been struck by the thought that such windows are too small to penetrate.

[waddirum]

19. If you look at the photo

there is a hole surrounding the base of the window, including chiseled out section of concrete.

[backscatter712]

3. I'm surprised that they apparently can.

Usually, jails are constructed with such skinny windows specifically to prevent inmates from being able to squeeze through them.

[slackmaster]

5. Given enough time on a diet of jail swill, a lot of people could fit through those

[Bosonic]

6. Maybe they...

[1] Lowered the rope
[2] An accomplice climed up to them
[3] Handed them keys or similar
[4] Accomplice climbs back down while they make their "Prison Break"?

[DaveJ]

9. And why no window alarm?

Probably someone raised their hand during a construction meeting and said "maybe we should have alarms on the PRISON windows" then the person in charge was like "shut up, nerd!" That's was usually happens.

[Agschmid]

18. Eh it probably wasn't about being a nerd but rather about the budget. n/t

[frazzled]

11. The windows are only 5 inches wide

(and 7 feet tall). I know this building. It was designed by Harry Weese in 1971.

I'm a fairly petite, 5-foot-2 woman, and I don't think I could squeeze through a 5-inch window. They must've been really skinny guys.

[DaveJ]

12. I'm reading average head is about 6" in diameter

Someone could squish their body through but the head is the hard part.

The first guy seems short enough, but the 6 ft tall guy was lucky.

Banks is described as a black man, 5 feet 8 inches, weighing 160 pounds. Conley is described as white, 6 feet tall, weighing 185 pounds.
The men apparently descended from a thin window on the flat south side of the prison into the alley below. The specially designed cell windows are barely a half-foot wide.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/18/2-inmates-escape-federal-prison-chicago/

[Occulus]

14. If I didn't mind losing soft tissue on my freaking HEAD, I'm sure I could fit

I'm not a big guy, and those windows look large enough for me to fit through if I were desperate enough.

Or, let me put it this way: there is no such thing as an escape-proof prison.

[slackmaster]

4. Evidently it isn't high enough

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well, myth busters proved it

And at least it's not the El Cajon (former) jail. These days serves as an admin building.

Styrofoam, the walls were made of styrofoam.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. Toss out the rope to make people THINK that's how you escaped.

Meanwhile, you slip out in the laundry truck (that's how they do it in the movies, anyway).

[Kingofalldems]

10. Were there paper mache dummies in their bunks?

[Michigan Alum]

13. That's right near the financial district in Chicago. Always wondered why they had this in the middle

of a really busy area.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

16. It's good to keep your crooks in one part of town.

The Daley Center is a mere 5 blocks away.

[valerief]

15. Kinda looks like a string on a blank keyboard. nt

[former9thward]

17. I don't understand how this could happen.

This building is in the heart of downtown and there are people around 24/7. I can't believe nobody saw this.