Inmates used makeshift dummies in escape bid

Prison officials in Michigan thwarted an apparent escape attempt by two inmates who used makeshift dummies as part of their effort to throw off the guards, authorities said.

The suspected escape attempt — which happened at about 6 p.m. Saturday at the Macomb Correctional Facility in New Haven — was foiled when a corrections officer stationed in a tower spotted cellmates Chakaris Isiah Loury, 24, and Darious Ellington Culpepper, 27, walking toward a fence after lagging behind their unit as they were headed toward a cafeteria, corrections spokesman Chris Gautz told the Detroit Free Press.

Prison officials later found makeshift dummies inside the inmates’ cell, one in each bunk. Using their coats and other pieces of clothing, Loury and Culpepper fashioned the items into what appeared to be their bodies beneath a blanket and resting comfortably in their beds, Gautz said.

“They claimed they were going to fight, but because they put stuff in their beds, we certainly treat it as an attempted escape attempt,” he told the newspaper. “They never got more than 10 feet from the fence and they never touched the fence. The staff was incredibly alert and responded right away. The public was never in danger.”

Loury and Culpepper did not appear to have any items in their possession to help further their escape attempt, Gautz said. Loury is serving 25 years for assault with intent to commit murder, while Culpepper was sentenced in 2016 to eight years for armed robbery, the Free Press reports.

The method employed by the inmates — using dummies left behind in cells to dupe unwitting guards — echoed that of Richard Matt and David Sweat, two inmates who escaped from New York state’s maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015.

Matt and Sweat’s ill-fated and highly publicized escape was later immortalized in a 2018 television miniseries produced by Showtime and directed by Ben Stiller.

Sweat, 38, is now serving a life sentence at the Auburn Correctional Facility after being transferred from a prison near Buffalo earlier this month, while Matt was killed during the 21-day manhunt.

via: https://nypost.com/2019/01/07/inmates-used-makeshift-dummies-in-escape-bid-officials/

Photo Credit: Michigan Department of Corrections