French authorities reported that a prisoner who escaped from a French prison and hid in another prisoner’s laundry bag, who was released on Friday, was re-arrested amid ongoing debates about prison security and overcrowding.
Eliazid A., 20, known as “Joker” or “The Equaliser,” was arrested early Monday morning as he emerged from a basement in a village about 15 miles from Lyon-Corbeil, the prison from which he escaped on Friday.
The prisoner managed to escape from the prison in south-eastern France by hiding in a bag belonging to his cellmate, who had been released after serving his sentence. According to French news channel BFMTV, the escape was discovered by prison authorities in Corbeil-Ettremont the following day, on Saturday.
The young man was serving a sentence for several crimes, including human trafficking and theft, and was also under investigation for links to organised crime. Two other inmates were in the same cell, one of who was due to be released on July 11. The prison has launched an internal investigation into the incident.
The prison’s director Sébastien Covel said that “this is an extremely rare case” which “reveals a number of serious breaches.” These violations, he said, were the result of “a series of mistakes.” The event is believed to have occurred because the prison administration did not notice the prisoner’s escape due to overcrowding in the Corba prison. A prison administration representative told BFMTV that the facility is 170% full, which “clearly makes working conditions very difficult for our staff.”
