Jailhouse breaks are a tale as old as time. Prisoners digging holes through the wall, building rafts to sail away from Alcatraz–we’ve seen just about everything. But while many prison breaks are carefully planned, some are entirely spontaneous. Some are even so audacious that you can’t believe they actually got away with it.
In December 2015, a Benton County inmate named Gerald Hyde was caught on surveillance footage making a spur-of-the-moment, brazen escape from the Benton County Courthouse. Video shows Hyde, who was convicted on drug charges, standing handcuffed in a room with several inmates as a corrections officer shuffles in behind them. As soon as the man passes him, Hyde, walks backwards out of the room and begins to run down the hallway.

The video then cuts to Hyde running through the courtroom itself, quickly stripping off the top half of his prisoner’s uniform to cover his handcuffs. Wearing a tank top and orange prison slippers, he runs through the courthouse halls and heads straight for the exit. He quickly ditches the slippers before slipping through the exit and out of the courthouse.

It’s quite a bold escape, but unfortunately for Hyde, his boldness did not translate into freedom. After being tipped off, Kennewick Police Officers discovered him at the Pepper Tree Village Apartments less than three miles away from the courthouse. He was then brought back to jail to serve the remainder of his sentence, with an additional felony charge of escape in the first degree.
He was caught 2 hours later btw. Hiding at a friends house… pic.twitter.com/nkrCSS40m8
— Hesh (@HeshComps) January 23, 2024
As to how the event happened in the first place, Commander Jon Law at the Benton County Sheriff’s Office blamed human error. “Mr. Hyde stepped off into a corridor, a bit of a blind spot for the officer,” said Commander Law. “In a perfect world we would have caught it and he wouldn’t have been able to get to that void and blind spot.”
While the prospect of a convicted felon on the loose can be frightening for a community, Hyde was not a violent offender, and was not deemed a public threat. According to Sergeant Kevin McCary, protocol would have been different with violent offenders. “Had it been a violent offender or somebody that was there on a very serious crime, they would have had two corrections officers with them escorting just them,” said McCary.
Despite the rarity of the incident, the sheriff’s office has made changes to prevent another escape. Corrections officers are now positioned differently to eliminate blind spots and courtroom doors are locked when the court is not in session. After the incident, the sheriff’s office reviewed all of their procedures for transporting inmates, and found several other problem areas that have since been corrected.
While Hyde’s escape may not have been ultimately successful, it’s certainly a video that will live on in infamy.