Escape [fr. echapper, Fr., to fly from], a violent or private evasion out of some lawful restraint; as where a man is arrested or imprisoned, and gets away before he is delivered by due course of law. Escapes are either in civil or criminal cases.
(1) Civil. The abolition of imprisonment for debt has rendered this all but obsolete, and the sheriff is expressly discharged from any liability by s. 31 of the Prison Act, 1877, repealed and re-enacted by s. 16, sub-s. 2, and s. 39 of the (English) Sheriffs Act, 1887. Escapes are either voluntary, by the express consent of the keeper, after which he never can take his prisoner again (though the plaintiff may retake him at any time), but the sheriff had to answer for the debt, and he had no remedy over against the person escaping; or, negligent, where a prisoner escapes without his keeper's knowledge or consent, and then upon fresh pursuit the defendant may be retaken, even on a Sunday, and the sheriff was excused, if he had him again, before any action brought against himself for the escape.
(2) Criminal. See the (English) Prison Acts and Rules, especially s. 37 of the Prison Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vict. c. 126), by which it is felony, punishable by imprisonment with hard labour, to aid a prisoner to escape. Rescue or conniving at the escape of a criminal lunatic is penalised by 23 & 24 Vict. c. 75, ss. 11 and 13, and 47 & 48 Vict. c. 54, s. 11. As to persons of unsound mind, see Lunacy Act, 1890, ss. 85-89. See RESCUE.
The act or an instance of breaking free from confine-ments restrain, or an obligation, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.