OPPORTUNITY RELEASE YOUR TIES TO THE PAST, WHEN YOU LET GO OF THE OLD, YOU MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW.

18, 2004
CONVICTED bank robber and prison escapee Bernie Matthews knows that breaking out of jail is far easier than staying out.

Matthews spent all but nine weeks of the 1970s in NSW's most notorious prisons. One of a select bunch of prisoners to have escaped Sydney's fortress-like Long Bay prison, he says no jail is 100 per cent escape-proof.

"Young blokes in jail can't see the end of the tunnel and will use their intelligence to get over the wall," he says. "It doesn't matter what you build, if someone's facing 25 years and all they want to do is get out, they will beat the system."

Matthews lasted only nine weeks on the outside before he was recaptured after a dramatic high-speed chase and shoot-out in Sydney's southern suburbs. In that short time he committed four armed hold-ups to finance his freedom.

Matthews' experience on the run is similar to that of many of Australia's prison escapees. Most turn to crime to survive and most are eventually caught and put back behind bars.

Matthews made another 15 attempts to escape prison between 1970 and 1973 but was unable to break out. "I can't think of anyone who has escaped and never been recaptured," Matthews says. "Sometime, somewhere, you will make some sort of mistake and then you're gone. Whether it's two years or 20 years, they will eventually get you back and that's the bottom line."

Matthews, who left prison four years ago and is now studying at university, says a minority of prisoners will attempt to break out at some point during their sentences. Most are motivated by a hatred of prison life. Some want to solve domestic problems – to patch up relationships with frustrated wives or a misbehaving school child. Amazingly, some escape to stay in prison. This type of escapee has usually gone from boys' homes to adult prisons and break out at the end of their sentence because they fear abandoning the only environment they've ever known.

West Australian police continue to hunt for three violent criminals who formed part of a gang of nine that escaped from Perth's Supreme Court building last Thursday. Despite a massive man- hunt conducted by hundreds of police, convicted armed robbers James Sweeney, 28, Robert Hill, 25, and Laurie Dodd, 28, remain at large.

"They are all on remand for very serious offences so we consider them dangerous," Acting WA Police Commissioner Murray Lampard said last week. "Their history shows they have a propensity for violence. I'm certainly concerned about having these people in the community."

Wayne Patrick Hayter spent about a month on the run after he committed armed robbery in Brisbane in 1978, when he was aged just 16. With three accomplices, Hayter spent an exhausting four weeks evading police through a rare combination of skill, luck and a bizarre series of events. He was caught by police after stealing water from a homestead while on the run in far west Queensland.

He says the longer the three escapees remain on the run, the more paranoid and desperate they will inevitably become.

"It is the worst scenario one can be in," he says. "The longer it goes on the more dangerous and volatile they will be because you lose all the premise of morals and codes towards the rest of the world. You know you're beyond the pale, therefore other people are beyond the pale."

Hayter says that because escapees often believe they have nothing to lose, they are willing to take extreme risks.

"The mind-set is: 'I have already done my lot anyway so it won't matter if I shoot this person or steal this car, or even get shot,"' he says.

However, Matthews says most escapees are more interested in keeping a low profile. It is the need for cash that forces escapees back to crime.

"It's improbable that you can get a job and you can't go on the dole, so you find friends to give you money or you commit a crime," he explains. "If you've been to jail for armed robbery, it becomes like second nature because you know how to do it."

It's a vicious cycle that Perth's escapees may already have embarked upon. Just five days after their dramatic escape, two of the three fugitives were allegedly involved in a violent armed robbery of a Perth betting agency. Security camera footage showed one of the men, thought to be Sweeney, holding a gun to the head of the agency manager and threatening to kill him. "They are desperate men," a Perth detective said.

The more desperate the men become, the closer authorities get to hunting them down. Six of their fellow escapees have already been returned to prison.

Matthews says that after breaking out, escapees typically go to ground for anything between two and six weeks to wait for the media spotlight to shift. But because family and friends are watched by police, escapees often have to rely on strangers.

"You've probably got peripheral associates, a team you've worked with who aren't known to police, or you call on old favours," he says. "But that's all risky because you're putting yourself at the behest of others."

When just one stupid decision, loose tongue or stroke of bad luck can put an escapee back behind bars for good, the margin for error is astoundingly slim.

"You have got to make your decisions and choices on the run," Matthews says. "If the police turn the corner, you think 'What do I do? Do I run or do I shoot it out? It's a very tenuous freedom. It's there, but it can be yanked back by anybody at any stage."

Matthews broke out of Long Bay by simply jumping over the wall in 1970. The alarm was not raised for almost 24 hours. He was caught after nine weeks when he was dobbed in by a friend of a friend. To this day, he does not know why he was turned in, or the circumstances, but remains curious.

The constant fear of being found creates a chronic state of anxiety, which can make it harder for most escapees to make rational decisions.

"I felt like an animal that was being hunted," Hayter says. "You fear your friends and you dread your enemies."

For Matthews, escape is futile and freedom is elusive because escapees can never let down their guard. "It is impossible to be free, it doesn't matter how long you're on the run for, you are never free," he says. "The opportunity for someone to tap you on the shoulder is always there, you never know how or when it's going to come. You are always thinking: 'Does that taxi [driver], barman or girl know me?' Immediately the warning light goes on when a person looks at you."

Hayter says the constant fear and anxiety creates harder criminals, a disturbing prospect considering many escapees have already served time in a maximum-security prison.

"It creates very dangerous people," he says. "Once they've crossed that line [and escaped], they are a hunted person and a hunted person is . . . more like a hunted dragon."

While the three West Australian escapees continue to evade the man-hunt set up to catch them, six of their fellow escapees have already been caught. Matthews is not surprised. "It's like a chess game that's impossible to win," he says. "In the end they are going to get you. You might win the first round but they will get you in the end."