After 37 years on lam, killer caught in Fla.

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By CURT ANDERSON and SUZETTE LABOY

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. (AP) - In the nearly 40 years after he escaped from the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, convicted killer James Robert Jones carved out a new life for himself in Florida, living under an assumed name, getting married and working for an air conditioning company.

It all came to an end this week when Jones - or Bruce Walter Keith, as the former Army private was known in Florida - was recaptured with the help of technology that was more sci-fi than reality when he broke out during the disco era: facial-recognition software.

"The first words out of his mouth were, 'I knew this would catch up with me someday,'" Barry Golden, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshals Service, said Friday.

Jones, 59, was one of the Army's 15 most-wanted fugitives after his 1977 escape from the Kansas prison dubbed "The Castle" for its large walls and tower keeps.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140315/DACHQOO84.html

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In this photo provided by the Broward County, Fla., Sheriff's Office is James Robert Jones, 59. Authorities say Jones, who escaped federal custody more than three decades ago, was arrested Thursday, March 13, 2014, when he showed up for work in Pompano Beach, Fla. He had been listed as one of the U.S. Army's 15 Most Wanted for escaping from a federal prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in 1977. (AP Photo/Broward County Sheriff's Office)

[Historic NY]

1. This is about the third in the last few days....

http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2014/03/most_wanted_fugitive_in_1995_b.html

[tblue37]

2. If prison is primarily to rehabilitate, socialize, and reintegrate

criminals into society, then the life he has lived for 37 years is evidence that these goals were accomplished, whereas returning him to prison for years is an expensive waste.

But of course our justice system focuses only on punishment and revenge, with no real concern for transforming criminals into productive members of society.

[brentspeak]

3. This guy's sentence wasn't for him to be rehabilated

It was for him to pay his debt to society -- or at least as much as could be paid, given that he committed homicide.

He didn't steal a car; he took another human being's life. And for that, he deserves every day in prison given to him. He was lucky just to get only 23 years to begin with. The 18-year-old kid he murdered sure never got the opportunity to live the full life he did.

[geek tragedy]

5. The primary purpose is deterrence. nt

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. Your primary assumption us false, so the rest of your post collapses...

It's more than obvious that our penal system does not aim for rehabilitation at all.

[tblue37]

11. I am refering primarily to what people un general, as well as those in authority, CLAIM to believe

about the purpose of prison and about what they CLAIM to believe the optimal outcome would be.

Instead of spending huge amounts of noney trapping millions of people in a hellhole where they are continually brutalized, and where those who will eventually be released are hardened and trained in criminal skills--as well as being aborbed into criminal networks--a system that actually rehabs people, socializes them, and makes them safe for the rest of society would benefit society. Rehab is still *claimed* as a primary purpose of imprisonment.

[TroglodyteScholar]

13. I can't recall seeing that claim made about imprisonment in the USA

How could our system be seen as anything other than punitive?

P.S. I agree that rehabilitation should be the purpose, but even the most casual observer can see that's not what we do here.

[olddad56]

15. prison is for punishing people and if they are not already, for turning them into monsters.

[packman]

6. Glad they got him, but-

I'd like to know more about HOW they got him. Are "they" now running everyone's face thru facial recognition computers? Seems a little unsettling to me in that what brought him to the attention of the authorities to run such a check?

[L0oniX]

7. NSA: "Facial recognition meta data? We're working on it."

[Scruffy Rumbler]

8. If he had a driver's license....

Most states require a photo now. I always assume it is available to the federal government and that they are ran through some database for criminals....

[sofa king]

12. Here's where I show the crazy.

I have an annoying stoplight in my town. It is festooned with cameras and it stops cars apparently at random for long times even when there is no side-traffic--especially work trucks. The light is not synched with other nearby traffic lights at all.

A couple of years ago I realized that if I was first in line at the light I could control it with the sun-visors in the work truck. Just pull down the visors, and the light changes. I've shown the trick to everyone I worked with, and they all use it now, too.

My theory is that the traffic light was trying and failing to recognize drivers and passengers, but the facial recognition software sucked, and held traffic in place until the facial search timed out--UNLESS someone in the car pulled the visor down and obscured a view of that person's face. Then the software would give up and change the light.

Hey, you don't have to believe me. Just try it yourself next time you're first at a stop light that is covered in white, cylindrical cameras. You'll see.

[philosslayer]

9. Boy that's an old-looking 59

Being on the lam must age a fella

[dembotoz]

14. 37 years on the lam----------poor lamb