A prisoner, who has been accused of at least seven rapes used bed sheets to escape from a Miami lockup. Reynaldo Elias Rapalo escaped on Tuesday. He was noticed by a visitor who saw a prisoner scaling the walls like Spiderman using a makeshift rope. Since that time authorities have scanned neighborhoods and communities and even contacted authorities in Honduras, in an attempt to track down the rapist.
Rapalo, has been accused of targeting women as young as 11 and well into their 70s and was set to go on trial later this winter. So how did this rapist escape? Apparently he simply climbed through the ceiling in his cell to the roof and then scaled the wall using bed sheets. How is it that a serial rapist can manage a relatively easy escape? Why would a prison be designed whereby inmates have access to the roof? What kind of planning is this? “We’re looking at every avenue of how we can fix this problem,” a prison official noted.
The solution however is quite simple. Instead of designing these unnecessarily complicated prisons, why not construct a medieval style structure with only one entrance and one exit? Prisoners could congregate and sleep in a massive communal area. Guards would oversee operations from a high vantage point, inaccessible by prisoners, sharpshooters would ensure civil behavior in the prison. There would be no privacy and certainly no opportunities to construct makeshift ladders or time to plot elaborate escape plans.
Rapalo’s escape puts the entire city of Miami on edge, especially those women living in the area close to the prior attacks. This man represents a serious threat to society. Police have warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous, which would make a shoot to kill order entirely justified.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-12-21-fla_x.htm
