String of Pennsylvania Prison Escapes Prompts State Lawmakers to Get Involved

There have been five prison escapes in Pennsylvania this year, including the most recent escape of Danilo Cavalcante

Photo byMilad FakurianonUnsplash

The escape of recently convicted murderer, Danilo Cavalcante, from Chester County Prison is just one in a succession of escapes in Pennsylvania since May of 2023.

For one, there was a similar incident in May at that facility. The same month, two people escaped from a Philadelphia jail through a hole in a recreation yard fence. And in July an inmate escaped from an exercise room in the Warren County jail in the northwest part of the state.

Pennsylvania state lawmakers are alarmed by these security breaches and want to do something to prevent these escapes from happening again.

A group of Republican state lawmakers are pushing five separate bills dealing with funding for prison security, the recruitment and retention of guards, and penalties for escaped inmates.

Representative Craig Williams represents part of Chester County in the 160th District, where a portion of the manhunt for Cavalcante took place. He says they were already working to address some of the issues at state prisons, and enlarged their scope when Calvacante broke out

"In the state system, you're eligible for parole at about 1/3 of the way through the state sentence, and this would remove that eligibility for parole," he said.

Williams, a longtime federal prosecutor with the DOJ, says there are also other bills aimed at improving community notifications, when an escape is happening, and as well as post escape audits and reports.

He added an alert system, similar to an Amber Alert, would be best when something like this happens.

"I think (the notification) can be improved. I think everyone agrees the state police have done everything they can possibly do," said Williams. "But for us information was paramount. I was learning as much as you were from the news than I was from the organization. I had one school district who found out after the fact."

Williams says he's hoping these bills will get bipartisan support and they can refer them to committee in the coming months.