Friday, October 26, 2007

It's me



He escaped from Marlboro Camp in New Jersey 28 years ago and after 28 years, authorities have tracked him and captured him in Philadelphia PA.

Maximo Jurado had been served 4 months of a 3 to 10 year a jail term for a drug offense at the now closed state prison when he escaped. Authorities stated that they have tracked him through several states and aliases before catching up with him finally. He was at his Philadelphia home this past Wednesday when they arrived.

Jurado, 75, told them that his name was "Juan" but when he was shown a prison photo of himself from 1979, he admitted that it was him. He is being held in Philadelphia until he can be extradited to New Jersey to serve the rest of his sentence and possibly more time for the escape. Jurado stated that he had not been in trouble with the law since his escape for fear of being caught. The former drug dealer had said that those fears forced him to turn his life around in the past 28 years.

While I applaud the authorities for diligently searching for an escaped convict for 28 years, I have to wonder what the purpose for the expense is. He is 75 years old and at this point, New Jersey will end up spending a lot of money that could maybe be put to a better use than imprisoning someone that old. Not only will they pay to house and feed him but they will take on the added expense of any medical costs an older inmate will have. Would it not be a better use of resourses to find an alternative punishment than filling another bed in an overloaded prison system?

1 comment:

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