When Will Men Learn to Ask for Directions?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 25, 2001 | by Stephen Goode

It wasn't much of an escape, but at least Arnold Ancheta gave it his all. If there's a next time, he'll probably plan more carefully and maybe take along a map. An inmate at Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas, Calif., Ancheta made his big move in early May when he allegedly stood on top of a bunk bed and carefully punched holes in the cell wall to make steps up to the ceiling.

A tool he constructed from a mop handle and a bedsheet allowed him quietly to pry an opening between the two bars that blocked his way to a skylight. The 25-year-old Ancheta then squeezed his body through the bars, broke out the Plexiglas skylight and found himself on the roof.

Freedom? Well, maybe not. After all his effort, the young man jumped to the ground -- a distance of about 20 feet. Instead of turning toward the fence that separated the prison from the public road, he leapt over another fence and headed as fast as his fleeing feet would take him -- right into the women's side of the medium-security facility, Department of Corrections spokesman Mark Cursi told a reporter from Reuters.

Female inmates noticed a bewildered Ancheta running around their prison yard and told correction officials, who took the would-be escapee to a more tightly wrapped jail downtown.