South Dakota Inmate’s Dash for ‘Freedom’ Was Short

It's happened again. An inmate at the South Dakota State Penitentiary walked away but was caught the next morning.

It often goes that way, and that's what happened in the case of Davis Bull Bear.

He walked away from the minimum-security unit at the Jameson Annex but was caught in Mitchell.

And we can all be thankful that escape attempts don't generally last long, but that doesn't mean inmates won't try. Some, of course, are violent and we;'ve seen one lead to the death of a Corrections Officer who was just doing his job.

The one that sticks in my head was the inmate who many years ago escaped, got out of town and stole a car, but was caught when other inmates saw him drive past the Penitentiary in the stolen car.

A longtime lawman once told me inmates spend a lot of time thinking about how to get out, but they don't think about what they're going to do once they're out.

My guess for Mr. Bull Bear is that he won't be going back to minimum-security.