Fenceless prisons defended after latest escape

Boston Globe
December 2, 2009

"A multistate manhunt for an inmate who strolled out of a Bridgewater prison last week after learning he had been indicted on a rape charge has drawn attention to a little-known fact about minimum-security prisons in the state: Inmates can walk away.

Correctional officials acknowledged yesterday that only one of the nine facilities that house the state’s 1,261 minimum-security inmates is surrounded by a fence, and doors are often kept unlocked to accommodate inmates who come and go to eat, work, exercise, and attend programs."

Read the full Boston Globe article with comments from CJI's Len Engel.