One of the two prisoners who escaped from the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center in December 2012 was sentenced Monday to 41 months in jail in addition to the 20-year sentence he was given last year for a bank robbery.
U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman, who sentenced Kenneth Conley, said he is "incorrigible" and "needs to be incapacitated for a lengthy time to protect the public." Feinerman ordered Conley's two terms to be served consecutively, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Randall Samborn. Conley also has to pay $1,324 in restitution to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for damage to the jail.
Conley didn't take his the judge's words lightly. According to the Sun-Times, when Feinerman announced the sentence, Conley told him to "stick it."
Conley, 39, eluded public officials for two weeks after his escape, but he was eventually caught in Palos Hills. He wore a disguise that included a beret, glasses and a cane, but when the Palos Hills authorities stopped him in the street and questioned his identity, Conley punched a lieutenant in the face and ran off. He was tracked down shortly after and brought back to the jail.
In May of last year, Conley was given a 20-year sentence from a different judge for the robbery of MB Financial Bank in a grocery store, which occurred in May 2011.
Conley and his cellmate, Joseph Banks, successfully escaped out of their cell's window and used bed sheets that were tied together to rappel down 17 stories in the first jail break at the institution since 1985. After their escape, the authorities entered their cell and found the metal window bars tucked inside the inmates' mattresses with fake metal bars on the window and clothing under the blankets to give the impression of a resting body.
Banks was caught two days later in Lincoln Park and has yet to be sentenced for the escape or for his prior conviction on four counts of bank robbery.
