ABSTRACT

This chapter explores escape as an event that is diagnostic of prison governance. The recording of escapes is a general feature of prison statistics and a key indicator of custodial performance. Ugandan Prison Service (UPS) staff assesses escape risk qualitatively and their main indicator is 'stability'. Instability is constituted by multiple factors that staff claims to be able pick up from their personal experience as custodians. Bandyophadyay's analysis of escapes from an Indian prison shows how both attempted and successful escapes call for a spectacular institutional backlash. In the case of an escape, the recapture of the escapee is awarded the highest priority and staff are called on to search the vicinity, monitor nearby roads and villages and alert the local police. If the recapture succeeds, the prisoner is punished. Prison practices are regulated according to official norms, but these explicit, formal rules are systematically and blatantly bent and broken in the negotiated ordering of Ugandan prisons.