The thought of being behind locked doors for more than 20 years was too much for Jackie Allen. So the same day he was sentenced this convicted child molester tried to make a break for it.
“Our officers took four inmates into an outdoor recreation area, and two of the inmates wanted to come back in because it was kind of chilly out. Shortly after another officers went out to retrieve the remaining inmates and realized there was only one there,” says Champaign County Sheriff Dan Walsh.
In the meantime, Allen had attempted a daring escape 25-feet up a recreation room wall. Deputies believe he somehow got to the top of a basketball hoop and jumped to some nearby steel beams, armed with a homemade rope he’d made out of a bed sheet. They say he then broke some steel anchors that secured mesh fencing as the room’s ceiling. Allen used those openings to pry back the fence where he tried to squeeze himself through. Even at around 150 lbs, Allen couldn't fit.
“All he managed to do is get himself stuck and all scratched up,” Walsh says.
The pair of empty shoes Allen left behind was a dead giveaway to his hiding spot.
“He was just able to get enough loose where he got himself stuck in the middle of this stuff. I had to have three officers go extricate him,” Walsh says.
Long-time deputies at the Champaign County Satellite Jail say other inmates have tried to make a run for it, but no one's ever made it this far.
“You have to be quite athletic and quite motivated to do all this, because you run a real risk of hurting yourself,” Walsh says. “We've had inmates sitting on top of the basketball hoop saying ‘I'm not coming down,’ but we've never had anyone try to jump that extra distance because it is very risky. If you don't make it, it's a pretty good fall.”
“I really don't think we'll ever have a completed one, just because of all the safety measures in place,” says Sgt. Amber Kocher, who’s worked in the jail nearly twelve years.
Still, the sheriff isn't taking any chances. A fencing contractor is already on the way to inspect the anchors in the rec-room ceilings in the satellite jail. The sheriff says they'll likely switch out some parts in the ceiling for ones that won't rust; then they'll take a look at the downtown jail too.
In the meantime those rooms will stay empty, and Allen will be labeled “high risk.” He’ll lose recreation privileges; he’ll have several officers on him everywhere he goes; and this attempt will follow him in his permanent record. The sheriff says they could prosecute him for trying to escape, but he's already doing more than 20 years.
