Cunning Plan
(2
April 1998, Wisconsin)
Correctional
institutions abound with "jailhouse lawyers" who will play any legal
angle to improve their situations. Joseph, a twenty-year-old inmate of the
Stevens Point Jail, planned a circuitous route to freedom. He would pretend to
be crazy in order to be transferred to the minimum-security mental health
facility, from which it would be easier to engineer an escape.
What
would a crazy person do if he were trapped in jail? Joseph pondered the
question, then decided to hang himself with a bed sheet until he was
unconscious, while his bunkmate alerted officials, who would cut him down and
hopefully send him to the nuthouse.
Joseph's
escape plan worked more quickly than he had anticipated. He hanged himself and
was taken to the freedom of a grave the very next day.