Articles depict the “adventures” of a man convicted of attempted 1st degree murder who was at large for 16 days. William Barefoot escaped the Hoke County jail and stole items while living in the woods and in empty homes. He was captured on November 9th, 2004.
Barefoot isn’t the only prisoner who has ever escaped a North Carolina prison and probably won’t be the last either. In 2003 “only” 3 inmates weren’t captured after successfully escaping. Even after Barefoot’s capture, another 193 offenders remain on escape status. 16 of these escapees were involved in some kind of murder charge. 1st or 2nd degree makes no matter to the victims. All the victims who died are equally dead. Offenders are classified by their most violent offense, so this means that murderers who “only” maimed others get the most credit for only their most violent offenses.
Sometimes the results of escapes only add another chapter to an ongoing tragedy. Luckily this time no other victims were added to Barefoot’s tally. Even the escapee was able to avoid being harmed.
This is not always the case though. In 2002, weeks after escaping the Odom Correctional Institution in Northhampton County North Carolina, the body of escaped murderer Gustavo Giraldo was found in the Roanoke River, he apparently drowned.
Among the stories that are missing in the papers are those of family members of victims or persons who have reason to feel threatened when the prison system breaks down and offenders get away (or try to). Prison breaks are a reality that witnesses, court officials and law enforcement almost never talk about but some issues are like this one, are occasionally self-evident, if only once in a while. Tomorrow the story of Barefoot will fade away at least until the next violent offender attempts or succeeds in his prison break.
Eighty percent of offenders are eventually released from prison on parole supervision; others are placed on probation or “max out”. New offenses mean that more victims have suffered. More court cases and court costs are included in the equation. Studies indicate that over 2/3rd’s of released prisoners are rearrested in as short a period as three years.
Barefoot is back in prison now. Those that he shares space with are obviously prone to violent behaviors. In the 2002-2003 fiscal year 59,884 infractions were committed in North Carolina prisons. The second most frequent Class A offense was “assault on staff” with 671 occurrences reported in the 2001-2002 fiscal year. “Just 500 more” in 2003. No one is saying what the costs of all of those assaults were for staff or how much this cost North Carolinians in lost wages, hospital and medical costs, rehabilitation and counseling that may have been required. Violence is a known part of the penal system and offenders who face long sentences have little or no incentive to behave. Weapons are commonly used by inmates against each other and staff and 698 assaults with weapons occurred in 2003.
We can build more prisons and make new laws that will be broken. Prison populations are currently around 36 thousand or so in North Carolina. So there’s no problem documenting the fact that there is "a crime problem".
So what’s the solution? Obviously we can’t lock up everyone and protect the population of an entire state from itself. The system would collapse under it’s own weight, not that this isn’t already happening to some extent.
Prison can become a "poor mans retirement plan" of sorts too. If you commit a crime that requires prison or jail time, taxpayers pick up the tab for your housing and medical needs. For less than $50 per day per inmate, citizens get 3 meals a day and a shower every other day for forfeiting their right to vote. Parents, “on the outside” can’t get daycare for their children for less.
The problem isn’t the system, except that it might be too easy an option for those that chose to break the law. It’s that the motivations that exist for persons who will break the laws are too strong. What does this mean? We shouldn’t make it easy for criminals to engage in bad behaviors. North Carolinians need to invest in "target hardening" or motive reduction techniques.
One motivation for some persons to commit crime is cash or illegal trade. More work needs to be put into eliminating cash motivated crimes. Many transactions are conducted with cash for the purposes of sales tax avoidance. For instance, there’s no way to say who owns a piece of currency or a $100 bill. Such things can change hands with little or no notice. We need to explore other options in terms of legal tender. More secure credit and debit cards are part of the answer. If such financial instruments required more robust or biometric authentication during transaction processing, what we buy would more likely be ours and if we were able to mark or track what we purchase less obviously and more reliably what is ours could stay in our possession until we use it up or sell it or properly dispose of it, more often. RFID’s offer one potential solution. The temptation to carry large sums of currency would be reduced for law abiding citizens and as a result, they'd be less likely to be preyed upon.
A society that experiences less wrongs is less likely to be motivated to commit wrongful actions against itself or be incarcerated. When you make it harder for the "common thug" to commit fraud or steal from others they can’t support drug habits. Securing transactions means new processes will require attention to privacy issues. The problems of the future will center on the issue of “Too much information” in the wrong hands, and will require some careful thought.
Barefoot was apprehended because he lacked the tools (or money) to function or hide in today’s world. North Carolinian’s were lucky that this offender did not consider assuming a new identity or actually attack persons while he was on the lamb. Desperate persons are often inclined to perform desperate acts. Who is to say that next time we won’t be as lucky? Or that offenders who have already been released from prisons after serving time for murders they have been convicted of, won’t perpetrate more of the same kinds of crime?
WRALTV - Barefoot's Adventure Becomes Clear As He Reveals His Trek, Raleigh, NC: Available from http://www.wral.com/news/3908315/detail.html. Accessed November 10th, 2004.
NC DOC Escaped Offender Reports ,Database Online. Accessed November 10th, 2004.
NC DOC Statistical Report Generator ,Database Online. Accessed November 10th, 2004.
NC DOC Research and Planning, Statistical Publications, Accessed November 10th, 2004.
U.S. Department of Justice · Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics, Reentry Trends in the United States, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/reentry/reentry.htm, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/reentry/recidivism.htm Accessed November 10th, 2004.
NC DOC Annual Statistical Report, Disciplinary Infractions, p12-13, http://crrp41.doc.state.nc.us/docs/pubdocs/0006072.PDF
RFID Journal, http://www.rfidjournal.com/
