PROBLEM
Beall and Panton") determined that 42 statements from the MMPI were able to differentiate between state prison escapees and the "good" custody risks. This index to escapism currently is included in the evaluation of all prisoners admitted t o the North Carolina prison system. The reliability of this escape scale recently was reinvestigated(5), and it still proved to be an effective discriminator between escapees and nonescapees. It is important to note that Ss for the experimental groups in both of these studies were felon escapees from medium-and close-custody facilities. North Carolina assigns honor-grade felons, and misdemeanant prisoners as well, to minimum security prison units, and this appears to be where the real escape problems are. These minimum custody units are relatively small and there is no close supervision by armed guards. Not only does the actual physical structure of these prisons and absence of armed guards allow easier escapes, but inmates at these camps generally have or eventually can gain "outside" privileges (i.e., work release, study release, home leaves, community volunteer passes, etc.) which increases the likelihood of escape.
The mounting minimum custody escape problems in North Carolina indicate a need for a better predictor of the likelihood of escape. The purpose of this study was to reevaluate Beall and Panton's(') MMPI escape scale on what presumably would be a more appropriate escapee sample than that used in previous studies. This would help to determine whether a revision of this escape scale should be undertaken.