QUICK action by prison officers led to the recapture of a robbery convict, minutes after he had escaped from the New Amsterdam Prison’s cultivation plot.
Zelon Johnson, of Lot 50 Stanleytown, New Amsterdam, Berbice, who is serving an 18 months sentence for robbery, had been assigned duties on the farm when, in his freedom bid, he fled to his family home just over a mile from the penitentiary. The blaring sounds of the prison siren and the intervention of police ranks shortly after 15:00 hrs alerted onlookers to the emergency.
Persons waiting outside, to take meals into the jail for other prisoners, said ranks searched unsuccessfully, under the nearby century old All Saints Presbyterian Church, for the escapee.
However, they returned, minutes later, with the convict, who was apprehended still dressed in prison uniform.