BY TRACY LEE TATE
Times Staff Writer
LAKE BUTLER — Early in the afternoon on Monday, April 3, a work release inmate at the Florida Department of Corrections Regional Medical Center, in Lake Butler, managed to approach the facilities water tower and climb it.
The unnamed inmate climbed 200 feet up the tower ladder, then began threatening to jump. Correctional officers and other prison staff worked at calming the man and talking him into coming down the ladders and, after about two hours he did so. The inmate was taken to the RMC medical unit to be checked out after his descent.
The inmate never posed any sort of threat to anyone other than himself and was never off prison grounds. There were no injuries resulting from the incident. Inmate work crews out in the community were recalled due to the incident as is the policy for any unusual situation. The inmates name and the reasons for his misbehavior have not been disclosed as of press time.
Oddly enough, a Google search for the term “inmate climbs water tower” produced reports of several incidents in the past 15-20 years, from all over the world, of inmates accomplishing this feat. No opinions on the origin of the idea or the motive behind it is not given in any of the articles.
