It seems the Director of Correctional Services spends more time explaining escapes, unscheduled releases and other assorted ills within his beleagured department then those of us who pay the freight should be expected to tolerate.

NDP justice critic Bill Estabrooks is quoted as saying “We’ve had a few mistakes and they are starting to add up.” Never thought Wild Bill would become the master of the understatement.

Don’t hold your breath if you are waiting for an elected official to question Honsberger. The politicians will mumble a few banalities and hope the problem disappears. The ones who really run the show, the bureaucrats, will stand shoulder-to-shoulder protecting the empires they control.

Here’s a criminal facing 22 charges, including attempted murder, hostage taking and robbery, and he is escorted by two guards. Given Carvery’s history of violent behaviour and the fact that he escaped custody in 1998 while serving a sentence in Westmorland  Institution, part of the Dorchester, New Brunswick penal institute, wouldn’t you think a few more precautions would have been taken?

Guards should have been riding in the back with Carvery, not up front in the cab. Had they been, he would not have slipped out of the leg irons, and would still be behind bars.

Honsberger says it is a mystery how Carvery was able to remove leg shackles. Really?

Fred,  he was left alone and to his own devices while being transported from Burnside to the Victoria General Hospital. During that time, with no one watching, he managed to rid himself of the leg shackles and put his running shoes in gear, and when they opened the door he ran like a bat out of hell to a newfound freedom. End of mystery, Fred.

(Al Hollingsworth is a retired journalist who served over six years as a military policeman and never lost a prisoner, including one in handcuffs  he escorted all the way from Cyprus to Canada.)