Prison Breaking

or BREACH. The act by which a prisoner, by force and violence, escapes from a place where he is lawfully in custody. This is an offence at common law. This offence is to be distinguished from rescue (g. v.) f which is a deliverance of a prisoner from lawful custody by a third person. 2 Bish. Cr. L. § 1065. To constitute this offence there must be — a lawful commitment of the prisoner on criminal process; Co. 2d Inst. 589; 1 Carr. & M. 295; Com. v. Miller, 2 Asbin. (Pa.) 61; see In re Edwards, 43 N. J. L. 555, 39 Am. Rep. 610; an actual breach with force and violence of the prison, by the prisoner himself, or by others with his privity and procurement; Russ. & R. 458; the prisoner must escape; 2 Hawk. PI. Cr. c. 18, s. 12. See 1 Hale, PI. Cr. 607; 4 Bla. Com. 130; Co. 2d Inst. 500; People v. Duell, 3 Johns. (N. Y.) 449; Com. v. Briggs, 5 Mete. (Mass.) 559. A convict who has been made a “trusty” and was not confined within the prison walls is guilty of an escape if he leaves the state; Jenks v. State, 63 Ark. 312, 39 S. W. 361; and so is one who flees from the custody of a jailer while being worked on a highway; Saylor v. Com., 122 Ky. 776, 93 S. W. 48; 282, 54 L. R. A. 853, 89 Am. St. Rep. 371, where it was held that a convict who had concealed himself in a crevice of rock in a quarry, and thereby escaped, was not guilty of breaking prison because no force was used. One may be guilty of escape after sentence and before commitment; Com. v. Briggs, 5 Mete. (Mass.) 559. It is no defense to a prosecution for escape if the defendant left a chain-gang to avoid unmerited punishment; Johnson v. State, 122 Ga. 172, 50 S. E. 65. A sheriff is not excused for a negligent escape by merely using care in keeping the prisoner; State v. Mullen, 50 Ind. 598. See Breach op Prison; Escape.

The common-law offense of one who, being lawfully in custody, escapes from the place where he is confined, by the employment of force and violence. This offense is to be distinguished from "rescue," (q. v.,) which is a deliverance of a prisoner from lawful custody by a third person. 2 Bish. Crim. Law, § 1065.

Defined under Prison in Black's Law Dictionary.