Stay back because . . .

I saw the sign on the back of the van and I understood that I was to “Stay Back.”   I just didn’t understand why. Not that I was tempted to disobey.

prisoner van close up

I wondered, “Did they forget to lock the back door?    Will a prisoner throw the door open and scratch my car’s bumper?”

I suppose the sign means that drivers should give the sheriff lots of room to get the prisoners in and out of the van.  Perhaps the warning could be better phrased, though.prisoner van

Share

Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Avatar of Kenny Celican
    Kenny Celican

    Actually, the thought process behind this: Any successful escape attempt is going to be facilitated by an accomplice, who will be following the transport closely, and likely engineering an accident or other reason to stop the transport and force the guards to engage in activities other than guarding the prisoners. Placing a large 'STAY BACK' reduces the number of cars which will require a guard's attention to be divided. In short, it's a 'this behavior is suspicious, please don't do it' thing.

    Relative of a friend works in corrcections, and has worked prisoner transport; he's the one who clued me in to the number of potential threats a prisoner transport guard has to pay attention to, and why they take minor steps like this one to reduce the 'false positive' threat indicators.

  2. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth

    Kenny: Thank you. That makes perfect sense. I should have tried harder to assume the mindset of a prisoner who was REALLY trying to escape.

Leave a Reply