The "Escapes Are Not Uncommon! " Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the infamous Mr. Cavalcante's recent escape from Chester County and the fact that it was not Mr. Cavalcante's first.  After a killing in 2017, in the northern Brazilian town of Figuelropolis, he apparently hid from authorities among the cattle ranches of the Brazilian savanna, and then fled to the United States with a false identity.  Living outside of Philadelphia, he had a relationship with Deborah Brandao, a mother of two who was also Brazilian.  He became threatening and abusive, people testified in his U.S. murder trial, and in April, 2021 he stabbed her 38 times, killing her in front of her young children.  He tried to flee then, too, but was arrested the next day in Virginia and brought back to Pennsylvania to stand trial. In August he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.  Nine days later, he escaped; and once again recaptured.  Authorities said that Cavalcante would soon be taken to a Pennsylvania state prison to serve out his life sentence.  Prosecutors in the Brazilian state of Tocantins, where Cavalcante has been charged in connection with the 2017 killing, said in a statement that they would hold the first hearing in that case next month, and that Cavalcante would be required to join the hearing via video call.  Cavalcante was captured in a gray Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt that he either found or stole.  Aerial footage showed an officer cutting it off as he was loaded into a police truck.  The Governor promised the owner a new one.  "Whoever had their Eagles hoodie stolen...if you could let us know," Gov. Josh Shapiro said, "I'll do my best to get you one of those new Kelly green ones.  As I continued to read a bit more in the newspaper I came upon another story with a headline that read 'Every escape is unique.  With just a hacksaw blade and cocoa butter, two men incarcerated at Lancaster County Prison made a daring escape 41 years ago though an air duct and over a 25-foot wall, only to get caught hours later when a corrections officer happened to pick up one of the escapees as a hitchhiker.  The brief escape in September of 1982 is a reminder that attempts to flee from correctional facilities rarely follow a pattern, according to Robert Bodner, a former associate warden at Lancaster County Prison who retired in 2010.  "Every escape is unique, there's no set routine." Bodner said hours after convicted killer Danelo Cavalcante was caught by authorities Wednesday in Chester County.  Reports that Cavalcante's crab walk out of Chester County Prison had been successfully attempted before and the 18-year veteran prison guard who was on watch that day was fired that Friday.  "I can't imagine something like that happening in our facility because they're so good at identifying problems and seeking to correct them," said Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons, who also chairs the county prison board.  The commissioner noted that the prison at 625 E. King St. in Lancaster doesn't have traditional outdoor recreational yards, as the Chester County Prison does.  Instead, housing units have large rooms with open-air vents to the outside.  In a news conference last week, Chester County acting Warden Howard Holland said the same company will likely be designing Lancaster County's new prison project.  Kansas City base TransSystems, will be providing Chester County officials designs to fully enclose their outdoor yards.  The role of an outdoor yard in Cavalcante's escape does not mean design considerations for the county's new jail project won't include outdoor recreation for inmates, Parsons said.  Inmates over the years have made use of carefully planned plots and spontaneous opportunities to try and make a run from Lancaster County Prison.  "I don't think any jail is escape proof," said the correction veteran, who started working at Lancaster County Prison in 1979.  Bodner said he responded to "too many escape attempts" in his years at the prison.   Some were the result of staff errors; others were the result of "pure inmate daring and ingenuity."  Between 2015 and 2022, Lancaster County officials have reported no escape attempts whatsoever, according to data from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.  Statewide, county jails reported 59 attempted escapes and 14 actual escapes in the same period.  Significant technological improvements in surveillance over the decades may have added to the difficulty of escaping a correctional facility, but  that doesn't necessarily overcome the need for staff to keep tabs on what's going on in their housing blocks.  "The best deterrent is an observant officer on patrol watching and listening," Bodnar said.  The retired associate warden pointed to an instance in 2009 when a defendant in the person's custody fled Lancaster General Hospital.  The inmate was waiting for an MRI related to a medical condition, according to newspaper archives.  "The officer assigned to the security detail was playing a video game on one of those small hand-held devices." Bodner said of the incident, "Pure dereliction of duty."  But, it's not alway as easy as it sounds, Bodner said.  Corrections officers are often supervising inmates in very old, chaotic environments, and it can be difficult to distinguish bogus inmate claims from real ones.  They're also constantly watching inmates doing tasks that happen every day, such as showers and meals.  Bodner said.  "It becomes very routine day after day... and routine complacency becomes a factor for staff."  Escapes happen from time to time, but you have to hope that the most violent of criminals are not part of that escape!  When that happens, it's big news...as well it should be.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.