26

Paul Wayne Stewart recollects the escape attempts at the York County Jail.
Question - "Do you recall any successful escapes from the jail?"
Answer - "There were some escapes during my time but eventually they were all caught. I don't know anybody that I can think of that is among the missing. I mean they might have got away for a while but they eventually all got rounded up and re-incarcerated...The last time was when, supposedly [the cause of] the closing of the jail, when all these guys went out the upstairs window. The building was in pretty bad condition, especially the windows, up in this particular area in the rec-room, just had kind of a screen bolted to the outside of the stone, and over the years the deterioration of the stone, and weather sort of had made that particular area quite weak and it was beaten, thrashed at and got a big enough hole that two or three guys got out and jumped and got away, but were caught within the hour."

27

Daily Gleaner newspaper cartoon referring to the state of the jail windows.
7 September 2004
Fredericton, N.B