KY - Escaped killer Ralph Annis lived 15 years on lam, takes plea deal

Ralph Annis, the convicted murderer who escaped prison in 1990 and was recaptured in February, accepted a plea deal in Marion Circuit Court yesterday that will keep him in prison for up to 14 years.
Annis, 54, escaped from the Marion County Adjustment Center in 1990 while on his 15th furlough. He lived quietly in Texas until his arrest, working in construction and roofing and living with a common-law wife whom he married after he was re-arrested.
When he escaped, Annis was serving a 20-year sentence for the 1978 murder of his then-girlfriend's 10-month-old baby.
Last year, the Herald-Leader tracked down a man with a similar Social Security number and an alias known to police to be Annis'. Once the newspaper began asking Kentucky officials about their failure to find him, Annis was arrested on a tip from one of the paper's sources.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/13570884.htm

I wonder why a murderer was ever allowed one furlough, much less fifteen. What were they thinking?

SewingDeb said:

I wonder why a murderer was ever allowed one furlough, much less fifteen. What were they thinking?

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I don't understand furloughs either. I thought when you went to prison, you were locked up. I thought that was the purpose of prison. I may not agree with parole, but I understand it. But furloughs? What purpose does that serve in rehab or the good of society?

None that I can see. It just lets a murderer be loose and have a chance to escape, like this guy did.