Certain inmates are smart and resourceful enough to plan an escape through an elaborate route and using any makeshift tool to open doors or cut fences.
Others are desperate to get out of the penal system, so they resort to violence for the breakout.
We have heard quite many inmates’ escape stories even from maximum-security prisons; some were eventually recaptured, but there have been few cases where escapees remain at large for many years.
Prisoners serve time for many different crimes, and usually (although not always) good behaviors inside the correctional facilities come with the reward of reduced time or other leniencies.
Those who attempted to escape either had discovered loopholes within the system to sneak away or been in utter despair for their life conditions inside that even the most reckless plan seemed like a good idea.
Among all prison escapes that made significant headlines in the decades gone by, here are some of the most memorable ones.
10 /10 George Edward Wright
Back in 1962, George Edward Right was convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was incarcerated at Leesburg State Prison (Bayside State Prison in Leesburg, New Jersey).
After serving about seven and a half years of his sentence, Wright escaped in 1970. On July 31, 1972, Wright and several accomplices hijacked a Delta airplane and flew to Algiers.
After years of living as a fugitive, he was finally arrested in Portugal on September 26, 2011. He has been living so long in the country that he became a Portuguese officially. Extradition to the United States was denied.
9 /10 El Chapo
For drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, every arrest never hindered his drug cartel operation. He was first captured in Guatemala in June 1993 and transferred to a maximum-security prison Puente Grande, which became his new base of cartel operation.
He managed to escape in January 2001 with the help of bribed guards. He was recaptured in February 2014 only to escape again from a top-security prison in Mexico through a tunnel in June 2015.
The drug lord was again recaptured on January 8, 2016, and is now serving a life sentence at ADX Florence in Colorado, United States.