Prisoners Stage 'Shawshank Redemption' Jail Break

[y2krog2000]

Two prisoners in New Jersey have staged a daring escape apparently inspired by the film The Shawshank Redemption.
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The pair, said to be armed and dangerous, are still on the run after digging holes in the walls of their cells and squeezing through.

As in The Shawshank Redemption, they used posters of bikini-clad girls to conceal the holes.

The pair, Jose Espinosa and Otis Blunt, left a note wishing the authorities "Happy Holidays" and thanking a guard they claimed had helped them.

Espinosa, 20, had pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter following a drive-by shooting and was facing a minimum of 17 years when he was due to be sentenced on January 25.

Blunt, 32, was being held on robbery charges.

Both were in the high security area of New Jersey's Union County Jail.

The pair used two improvised tools, including a thick metal wire, to remove cinderblocks from the wall in Espinosa's cell.

A 10lb steel water shut-off wheel was then used to crush the cinderblocks so that they could be hidden in the cells.

The criminals then put pillows under their sheets to make it look as if they were asleep.

They wiggled through the holes, jumped off a 30ft-high wall and then scaled a razor-wire fence before getting to rail tracks and making their escape.

It is thought that the break-out was planned fairly quickly as both men were only held for a few weeks. Prison authorities are investigating the claim that a warden helped with the escape.

In The Shawshank Redemption, a wrongly convicted prisoner played by Tim Robbins digs his way out of his cell, hiding the hole with posters of pin-ups like Raquel Welch.

Prisoners Stage 'Shawshank Redemption' Jail Break - Yahoo! News UK