prison escape

Escape of the prisoners from the Limoeiro, at Lisbon, 29 April 1847, during the Patuleia civil war Escape from prison in Greenville, Ohio, USA (1909)

A prison escape (also referred to as a bust out, breakout, jailbreak, jail escape, prison break or unlawful departure) is the act of an inmate leaving prison through unofficial or illegal ways. Normally, when this occurs, an effort is made on the part of authorities to recapture them and return them to their original detainers. Escaping from prison is also a criminal offense in some countries, such as the United States and Canada, and usually results in time being added to the inmate's sentence, as well as the inmate being placed under increased security that is usually a maximum security prison or supermax prison. In Germany and a number of other countries, it is considered human nature to want to escape from a prison and it is considered as a violation of the right of freedom, so escape is not penalized in itself (in the absence of other factors such as threats of violence, actual violence, or property damage).