Georgia Prisoner Caught Sneaking into Prison Charged with Escape
FBI Special Agent James Hosty wrote in a recent federal criminal complaint that “Since in or about January 2013, the Atlanta Police Department ... has been investigating instances of inmates temporarily escaping from the prison camp at USP Atlanta and frequently returning to the camp with contraband.” After finding a man-sized hole in the fence at the federal lockup in January 2017, police officers placed a camera near the breach and watched a “constant flow” of prisoners leaving the facility and quickly returning. The video was turned over to the FBI.
On February 3, 2017, officials with the FBI and Atlanta Police Department staked out the site and observed prisoner Justin B. Stinson leave the prison grounds by climbing through the hole and over a second fence. He took a large duffel bag from someone parked in a car just outside the facility and returned several minutes later. When police confronted Stinson, they found the bag contained a cell phone, scissors, two 1.75 liters of Jose Cuervo tequila, two cartons of Newport cigarettes, four boxes of Black and Mild cigars and food items.
Stinson was subsequently charged with escape.
In a January 29, 2013 incident at the USP Atlanta camp, police noticed a car parked near the facility; when they approached, three people inside, who were wearing ski masks, fled into the prison’s grounds. Inside the car were two dozen cell phones, bottles of alcohol and two loaded handguns.
No one has explained why authorities waited between 2013 and the present to install cameras and make arrests for prisoners absconding from the federal facility and returning with contraband.
Sources: www.myajc.com, CNN
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