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| Interior view of a jail cell at Oakalla Prison (Vancouver Archives) |
With snow continuing to rear its ugly head much more than we Vancouverites are used to, the only thing most of us are thinking about escaping this New Year’s Eve is subzero temperatures.
However, there was one New Year’s past when a much bigger escape happened. This escape involved 13 maximum-security prisoners—and it happened right here in Burnaby, British Columbia, just a ten-minute drive from Krakit Escape Game, in what is now Deer Lake Park.
It all began 29 years ago, on December 28, 1987, when tensions at Oakalla Prison were at an all-time high. In this atmosphere, a minor disciplinary incident acted as spark that would erupt into a full-fledged riot involving more than 100 people. It took three days for the prison guards to turn down the rioting prisoners, who smashed cells, lit fires, and made weapons out of anything they could find.
By New Year’s Eve, the rioting had spread to the east wing—where the worst offenders, including murderers, were kept. To keep on top of the escalating situation, the guards moved these max inmates to a set of underground cells that hadn’t been used since the days when Oakalla was a prison farm.
When the guards came back to serve the prisoners coffee, the inmates jumped the guards, locked them in the segregated cells, and made a break for it.
That was that, and the 13 inmates found themselves with a sudden New Year’s resolution to keep—hold onto their new ill-found freedom.
From its opening in 1912, Oakalla Prison was no stranger to escape attempts, with its inmates able to slip out from between cast iron bars, scale the razor-wire fences, and run into the surrounding forest. Some were recaptured, but some ere not. It reportedly even became a game for particularly sneaky criminals to get caught, be placed in Oakalla, and then make an escape attempt—just to see if they could. One year, there were more than 40 escapes in seven months.
Over the course of its nearly 80 years in operation, 850 inmates escaped from Oakalla Prison. Not a very good record, to say the least. The 1987 New Year’s Eve prison break was the beginning of the end for the Burnaby prison, which had been making local residents understandably nervous for quite some time. It was decommissioned and demolished just a few years later, in 1991.
You and your friends can make your own escape attempt this New Year’s Eve by booking a slot in one of our four themed escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit. But please, no maximum-security inmates need apply.
However, there was one New Year’s past when a much bigger escape happened. This escape involved 13 maximum-security prisoners—and it happened right here in Burnaby, British Columbia, just a ten-minute drive from Krakit Escape Game, in what is now Deer Lake Park.
It all began 29 years ago, on December 28, 1987, when tensions at Oakalla Prison were at an all-time high. In this atmosphere, a minor disciplinary incident acted as spark that would erupt into a full-fledged riot involving more than 100 people. It took three days for the prison guards to turn down the rioting prisoners, who smashed cells, lit fires, and made weapons out of anything they could find.
By New Year’s Eve, the rioting had spread to the east wing—where the worst offenders, including murderers, were kept. To keep on top of the escalating situation, the guards moved these max inmates to a set of underground cells that hadn’t been used since the days when Oakalla was a prison farm.
When the guards came back to serve the prisoners coffee, the inmates jumped the guards, locked them in the segregated cells, and made a break for it.
That was that, and the 13 inmates found themselves with a sudden New Year’s resolution to keep—hold onto their new ill-found freedom.
From its opening in 1912, Oakalla Prison was no stranger to escape attempts, with its inmates able to slip out from between cast iron bars, scale the razor-wire fences, and run into the surrounding forest. Some were recaptured, but some ere not. It reportedly even became a game for particularly sneaky criminals to get caught, be placed in Oakalla, and then make an escape attempt—just to see if they could. One year, there were more than 40 escapes in seven months.
Over the course of its nearly 80 years in operation, 850 inmates escaped from Oakalla Prison. Not a very good record, to say the least. The 1987 New Year’s Eve prison break was the beginning of the end for the Burnaby prison, which had been making local residents understandably nervous for quite some time. It was decommissioned and demolished just a few years later, in 1991.
You and your friends can make your own escape attempt this New Year’s Eve by booking a slot in one of our four themed escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit. But please, no maximum-security inmates need apply.
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