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March 1, 2007

Inmate's escape attempt at hospital thwarted

An ACI prisoner who was being treated at Rhode Island Hospital attempted to escape last night after a guard allowed him to use the bathroom, state corrections officials reported today.

Joseph T. Lee, 36, of Pawtucket, was wearing leg shackles when he requested permission from a correctional officer on duty to use the bathroom, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tracey Z. Poole said. The correctional officer waited outside the bathroom, and Lee emerged brandishing a towel rod that he had pulled from the bathroom wall, Poole said.

The correctional officer drew, but did not fire, his service weapon, according to a department statement issued today about the incident. Lee attempted to flee through a locked door on the hospital’s first floor, the statement said.

Responding to the officer’s call for back up, correctional officers from the Intake Service Center, Rhode Island Hospital Security officers and Providence police officers arrived on the scene. Lee was “safely returned to his room and no one was injured in the incident,” the correctional department statement says.

-- Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 6:31 PM | Permalink

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