The Newer Mo' Revised Program Escapers Guide

[Che Gookin]

1st Rough Draft, feel free comment on it. All useful input will be added for the final draft:


By attempting to escape you must accept the following risks

Death
Injuries of all sorts
Rape
being forced to restart the program
being betrayed by your own family
consquenced by the program with humiliation tactics


The list above is by no means limited to those, and one should be aware that attempting escape is a dangerous activity. However, if you are the sort of person who is willing to undergo the risks associated with escaping then by all means continue to read on. If you aren't willing to risk it continue to the next chapters involving manipulating the program to advance quickly, program rebellion, and the other chapters that will be coming in the near future.


Escaping from a program isn't something you should consider on a whim. Depending on the location of your program you are forced to consider a variety of factors. For instance, if your program is in the desert in a remote location you may be forced to travel long distances in a harsh climate. You must tailor your needs to the demands of the enviroment.

Consider the following prior to your attempt to secure your freedom:

1) Climate
2) Location
3) Avaliable resources (streams, rivers, lakes, food sources)


Once you have determined these issues you are ready to move onto the next step in the planning process. This is a simple matter of taking the climatic information, location, and avaliable resources and determining what you will need to take with you when you flee. Keep in mind your needs when you do this planning, and also keep in mind your security. Don't make your preperations to obvious so to avoid detection by the program staff and fellow captives. Just because you all are in the same situation it doesn't automatically mean your fellow captives will aid you by remaining silent or helping with more tangible items like food and water.

No matter what your location YOU will need the following:

*A strong container to hold your water. I can't emphasize this enough. Water can be taken from various moving bodies of water such as streams, lakes, creeks, and even irrigation canals. Making a filter is actually pretty easy to accomplish if you understand the process. However, if you don't have a strong container to store you water after collection you are going to be struggling to survive from the onset.

Solutions for this problem:

Standard water bottles are good, but not always allowed.
Regular soda bottles with a cap work well. They are strong, hold a decent quanity, and can be found almost anywhere.

Avoid Glass jars and other glass containers due to breakage.

* You will also need away to purify your water. A poster on Fornits wisely suggest stealing some bleach. 2 drops of bleach can purify a full gallon of water. However, bear in mind that to much bleach can induce some rather funky bowel movements.

Solutions for this problem:

*Bleach(2 drops per gallon?)
*Iodine(2 drops per gallon?)
*A metal container to boil your water in for 20 minutes prior to drinking.
*A commercial water filter avaliable to backpackers if you can aquire one
Make your own filter, but bear in mind these tend to only work for the large impurities such as dirt and other debris. Consider this only as a partial solution. The need to purify your water with bleach or iodine is still very much a consideration.

http://www.ucls.uchicago.edu/students/p ... ilter.html

The above link is to a simple sand filter for straining out dirt from your drinking water. It still does not deal with bacteria.

The next item on your list is clothing. Most attempts that make it past the immediate reach of the program due to the lack of resources. Once you've fled with no clothing other than what you are wearing you limited by your options. Not all programs require uniforms. If this is your style of program your situation is greatly eased. If not, and you are forced by your HACKs, to wear a uniform then consider stealing your HACKs clothing when he or she is asleep. Other sources of clothing will be discussed shortly.

When you flee your captivity remember that your description will be sent out to the police and members of the surrounding community. Depending on the program private detectives may well be hired to persue you. By having a change of clothing you automatically increase your chances of avoiding detection.

Sources of clothing:
*Your own group is a walking clothing store. Just remember that if you are caught stealing from them the consquences may well be very unpleasant.
*Various charitable organizations have clothing donation bins located in public locations all over the country. Be aware of these sites and keep your eyes open when you are taken off campus. They aren't well secured and could well provide a veritable bounty of clothing.
*Some people still dry their clothing on clothes lines.(In these locations you can almost be promised a whiff of bird shot from an irate home owner from a 12 gauge is discovered... PROCEED WITH CAUTION)
*If you have money avaliable simply go to a good will or salvation army and outfit yourself accordingly.

The next big consideration is food. You can techinically survive for upwards of 7 days without food. However, your caloric intakes determines your body's ability to perform. With a reduced caloric intake you won't be able to run as fast, walk as far, and your judgement will be impaired. Decisions will not be made as carefully, and this could lead you to take risks that you normally would avoid.

Solutions:

*liberate a selection of high calorie packaged food items from your dining hall.
*If your torture center has a required snack then consider saving yours if you can do so without being discovered.

Don't liberate raw items like fruit, bread, or other perishable goods. Seek items in packages or cans. This saves you having to worry about the food going bad.

Once you've fled your torture center consider the following options for securing food:
*Dumpsters behind resteraunts and grocery stores.
*Going into busy resteraunts and finishing the meals that aren't finished off customer's plates.
*Charitable organizations often give out food to homeless individuals. (Proceed with caution as often contact with do gooders can lead to your recapture out of the spirit of good intentions.)

[Che Gookin]

This next installment of the Escaper's Guide is going to deal with the SEVEN Ps of any sort of planning. The seven Ps are as follows:


Prior
Proper
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

There are variations on this theme, but this is the one I tend to use. In short if you haven't put some thought into your escape you are most likely going to fail. In the last segement I advised the prospective escaper to consider items like water, food, and clothing. In this segement I'm going to take it a step further. Now that you've looked over the fundamentals of survival while on the run you need to consider how you are going to effect your get away. I suggest you beware of the following issues during this phase of the escape.

If you talk about your plans to a peer in your group more than likely he will rat on you.
IF you write about your plans in a letter or in a journal you are at risk of being discovered.
If you even act like you are making preparations to run your counselor/HACK more than likely will notice.

You need to be subtle here and keep this to yourself. Don't breathe a word of your plans to anyone and don't write anything down about it either. Don't make any lists, don't draw any maps, and definitely don't start making any obvious caches of goods that can be discovered easily. I know I said it might be wise to stock up on your high calorie snacks, but keep in consideration most programs, if not all, consider this contraband and view it as a run away attempt. It is a calculated risk you have to factor into your preperations, and it depends on your counselor/HACK.

For this part of the preperation I want you to OBSERVE. Watch your counselors and begin to learn their habits. Counselors are creatures of habit. The very nature of the job requires a counselor to attempt to follow the facility proceedures. Proceedures that dictate everything from the time you wake up, when you go to bed, and in some cases even how you fold your boxers. Facilities thrive off routine and order and there is always a great deal of pressure put on counselors to keep their charges on time for the various daily activities to maintain. Groups that can't stick to their daily routine are generally the poorly functioning ones, but be aware that there isn't any difference between escaping a good running group or a poorly running group. The risks are still the same, and in my opinion the risk of detection is higher in a poorly running group due to counselor/hack paranioa.

This is what I believe you need to watch for:

*What times do your counselors appear to be the least alert?
*When does it appear that your facility seems to be the shortest staffed?
*When would be the easiest time to slip away from your group?
*Who is the best counselor to have on duty to make a run on?

Let's examine each one of those individually.

*What times do your counselors appear to be the least alert?

If your counselors are 24 hour staff then you are going to find yourself with all sorts of opprotunities to exploit. Not all programs utilize night staff. If you are one of the fortunate ones whose torture center doesn't utilize night staff then attempt to find out when your counselor sleeps the heaviest. Best way to do this is to randomly wake him or her up in the night asking to go to the bathroom. Once you can ascertain when you counselor/hack seems to sleep the heaviest then plan your departure around that time. My own heaviest sleep patterns was always 2 hours after I fell asleep. My group go so used to it they never bothered even trying to wake me up during the night.

If your program uses night staff all is not lost! At some point your night staff is going to be prone to struggle to stay awake. Further, most night staff aren't going to forbid you from using the bathroom. Plan your departure accordingly around these times and be ready to resort to fleeing when the window of opprotunity opens itself up to you unexpectedly. This window of opprotunity might well not even be at night. It could well be during the day. Just be ready to flee your captors when the opprotunity presents itself to you.

*When does the facility appear to be the shortest staffed?

This should be obvious, but for those not in a program I will elaborate on it. The less people on duty the harder it is for them to run you down. Someone has to watch the groups, and this takes time to organize. Frequently on weekends staff numbers are lower, and likewise after office hours on weekdays.

*When is the easiest time to run from your group?

No all facilities have strict rules about captives being used to search for run aways. Several WWASP facilities have been known to utilize high status captives in search parties for run aways. SUWS actually has a stage of their program devoted to search and rescue operations that are also geared to the recapture of their prisoners. Also in my own experiences I have seen other captives spontaneously intervene on the sight of a fellow captive attempting to run. For this reason I suggest attempting to ascertain the time when your group seems to be less likely to intervene.

*Who is the best counselor to have on duty to make a run on?

Some counselors/HACKs are better to run away from than others. Rule of thumb that I suggest is avoid running from your captors if they are physically fit. Literally wait till the overweight wind bag of a HACK is on duty. Though keep in mind that not all of us larger men are slow over short distances. I've been known to have a hellishly fast short sprint. Watch your counselors/HACKs during recreation times. It helps to know what distances will be needed to keep away from them. Also important items like, which counselor sleeps the heaviest. I once had a fellow counselor who was a college level track runner, but he slept like he was dead. Literally I had to shake his entire bed and scream at him to wake him up at night if I needed his help.

[Che Gookin]

Now that you have considered your supplies, observed your staff members, figured out when your group is the least likely to stop you, ascertained when the least amount of staff is on duty, and managed to not get caught you are ready to move onto the next phase of your upcoming burst to freedom. The more information you have beforehand about your surroundings the better. What is it that you know about the surrounding countryside? This is very important in the escape for a variety of reasons.

First if you can't tell the difference between a desert and a forest then please stop reading now. Stay in the program and move onto the sections regarding program manipulation and surviving the program. If you can tell the difference between a desert environment and a forest environment then read on if you've the stomach for this sort of thing. The environmental conditions have already been discussed somewhat in regards to your preperation of supplies. However, I will now give a more in depth anaylsis.

The environment is a crucial component in the escape. It determines what time of the year it is best to run in, how much to bring in the way of supplies, even the sort of clothing that is best to wear, and what sort of wildlife to be wary of. Each different environment raises its own set of specific advantages and disadvantages. And both have to be weighed carefully when preparing to make your dash for freedom. The knowledge literally can mean the difference between life and death for the prospective escaper. Let's examine the obvious points of consideration:

1) Climate.. Is it to cold to escape? Is it to hot to escape? Freezing to death or dying of thirst are specific points of interest here.
2) Avaliable supplies of water. We've discussed water storage earlier, but where is the water when you really need it?
3) Knowing what sort of snakes, insects, and animals are dangerous can save you from a great deal of pain or death.

Another factor regarding understanding the countryside is the people who live near the facility. Many programs have worked out bounties with the locals for capturing run aways. The perception the locals have of the captives in the program isn't a very favorable one to you anyway. Programs make strong case to the locals that their kids can be dangerous or they purposely make the arguement that by returning the kid to the program they are doing so to help the kid get the help they need. Either way detection by a local resident very well promises you a trip back to the program. Local law enforcement is about as helpful. They tend to hold a dim view of the captives, and more often than not will support the program even in the face of allegations of abuse.

One exception to this was in the Whitmore Academy situation where a young man ran from the program, went to the police, and told all. His bravery blew the entire story all over the national scene allowing for the program owners to be charged in the State of Utah, their program shut down, and prevented from ever working with kids in Juab County ever again. This is the exception to the rule as frequently the local police will aid the hunt for a captive and promptly return them to the program when the captive is taken into custody.

Once you have ascertained the climatic, wildlife of both human and animal kind, and water supplies you are ready to begin preparing for your escape.

[Che Gookin]

The Golden Hour

Escaping from an unlawful confinement can't be easy on the nerves. The one conversation on it I've had with a young man who attempted an escape that was reasonably well planned indicated he was a bundle of nerves at least two full days prior to the event. I had mistakenly put it down as nerves regarding a pending decision over a major change of status in the program. All along the young man actually had been planning to make a courageous break for freedom. He had a plan, knew just the right time to make his break, and had considered his clothing and surroundings. For the entire first night the only ones looking for him were two counselors due to being short staff. Both of the counselors, myself and borrowed counselor from a nearby short term program ran by the same company, weren't particularly motivated to go smashing our way through the forest.

His only mistake was violating the principle of the golden hour.

The golden hour is the one hour of time immediately after your escape. This hour is going to immediately determine if your escape is going to be successful or a failure. In the case of the young man's plan he had intially decided to attenpt to hide out near the camp until the search parties had been called off. This actually wasn't a bad idea considering that the sheer man power involved comes from all parts of the facility and ends up causing all sorts of problems with the day to day running of the program. This means that the ability of a program to search the surrounding vicinity is limited by the amount of people they can keep actively searching for a set period of time. The young man failed because he broke cover and started to make his departure from the geographical location the very next day. It is due to this movement that a counselor heard him and quickly discovered him.

Whatever plan you have you need to remember The Golden Hour. Without the steadiness of nerves to carry through with your plan of escape you will end up complicating the issue and cause yourself to be recaptured. Once you decide on a course of escape stay with your plan only until the current situation dictates you need to change it. These situations can include potential discovery, medical issues, and loss of fortitude to carry on. Don't feel bad if you feel like giving yourself up. If anything you bogged down the amount of torture and pain your program could heap on your peers for however amount of time you were on the run. For this your peers should applaude you, but more than likely they will spite you as the general trend of programs is to tighten up on personal liberties even more in the event of an escape to prevent further escape. With this stated lets examine the Golden Hour.

With your plan of personal release from the program planned out and prepared for you make your departure. The very second you move away from your program the clock starts ticking. From this second onward you are racing time to enact your personal departure plan. The Golden Hour is crucial as if it starts poorly you are fighting an uphill battle to successfully escape from the very start. If the hour starts properly you won't be fighting against time and staff to enact your plan under pressure. The odds are stacked against you in the sense that you will be fighting your peers, staff, locals, police, and your own family.

Once you've made your break you have better know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Having a destination is crucial, but not immediately crucial. How you plan to reach that destination is an immediate issue. Remember that most programs don't have the man power to adequetely search the surrounding countryside. This is why so many are located in remote wilderness locations. It makes it harder for a person not used to the wilderness to maintain their bearings. Knowing what will happen after you escape is important. Will the program call the police and resort to a search and rescue party? Does your program have access to bloodhounds? I've heard of programs using bloodhounds to run down escapers in Utah (See the section regarding evading bloodhounds).

Becareful though as programs tend to regard those sorts of questions as a flight risk and may take action. Don't be shy about being the sort to learn from the escape attempts of others. Be keenly aware of your surroundings every single time you leave the program for any reason. With this information at your disposal you can make a decision on how you will proceed on your journey.

There are two general strategies I've seen used. None of them successfully, but the failures had other factors that included poor planning and even poorer judgement of the escaper.

The first strategy is to find a hiding spot a short distance away from the program and hide for a few days. By minimizing your movements you can avoid detection. This strategy has the potential to work only if you can remain still and remain even quieter. Failure to do those two things puts yourself at risk. I'd strongly suggest you not hide in any abandoned buildings, prominent geographical locations, or areas that are exposed to the elements. You are going to want to have some cover to protect yourself from the elements of nature and being spotted.

The second strategy is to move away from the program as fast as you possibly can. I believe if you are physically fit enough you may want to risk it. Don't forget that the more movement you make the greater the chances of discovery. This strategy takes into account the fact that the program may resort to search and recue operations that are man power intensive and may even include bloodhounds. When using this strategy take care to stay off public roads, forest trails, and power cuts. Also don't walk on exposed ridgelines as you tend to stand out for miles around. When moving through rough country take care not to break your way through the brush. Rather than doing this move through the forest carefully to avoid leaving a massive swath of devastation that can be followed. You really do want to minimize the impact you have on your environment to avoid leaving a trail. Don't urinate or defecate in noticeable spots. Take the time to dig a small hole to bury your bodily wastes and trash.

Either way stay with your plan until the circumstances of the situation deterime its time to change your approach. With steady nerves and clear thinking you should be able to stay one step ahead of your program. Your program is for the most part a creature bound by operating proceedures. Learning those proceedures can give you all sorts of potential points of attack to exploit to go about carrying out your personal departure plan.

[Anonymous]

This is an excellent resource for kids looking to escape abusive programs.  Thanks for posting it.





rtp2k3

[Anonymous]

If anything should be stickied it's useful, practical information like this.

Prevention is easier, running away can be dangerous but not as dangerous as many programs.

[deadinsaneorinjail]

now where do you go since you can't go home and have no money

[Anonymous]

The nearest library and Fornits, to PM the regulars, and then somewhere to hang out for two days.

[Anonymous]

now where do you go since you can't go home and have no money

If they are as uncertain of their destination (even if it only means a place they are safe from torture)  they would of never ran in the first place.

The obvious answer is "away from torture". Everything else is secondary. This is serious.

[RTPChristSupertzar]

Absolutely.  When I left Straight, I had no clear destination in mind, "I just" knew that ANYWHERE was better than being held in Straight.  I did OK, for the most part, didn't get caught for over a month.  I didn't think they'd be that determined-----which reminds me:   AVOID PREVIOUS HAUNTS OF YOURS WHERE YOU MAY BE RECOGNIZED BY UNFRIENDLY OPERATIVES.   My mistake was going to a record store, where I was seen by a gym class intern from my old high school.  He had been briefed and was sharp enough to write down the tag number of the car I got into.  Dumbshit probably thought he was doing me a favor, y'know, saving me from the whole DEADINSANEINJAIL thing.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

it's interesting. But the problem is....you know....how would a person to whom this would be useful get it?

I don't think on the inside, there's much acess to the unfiltered internet

[Che Gookin]

That does seem to be the clincher eh?

[Anonymous]

Another thing is, running away, at leat where i was, was really about, When am i alone?

You really are watched, or behind lock and key 24/7. It seems there's less planning involved, and just being able to recognize and seize an opprotunity

[Che Gookin]

That is the bigger point.. most of the runners I chased after had all bolted impulsively. You could tell they didn't think about it much as they normally all ran the quickest route to the nearest road and got nailed by a staff member waiting by the side of the trail.

The one kid who actually made it all the way to Oregon from Alabama did it because he took a little time to think about what he was going to do and went the exact opposite direction after circling around in the woods to give everyone the idea that he bolted in the same old direction everyone else did and then pissed off in the exact opposite direction where he stole a van and hauled butt.