NOTE: If convicted of only offenses committed on or after 28 December 2023, the judge shall sentence the accused in accordance with the sentencing parameters or criteria, as appropriate, or state reasons for deviating in writing. See RCM 925(c)(2), RCM 1002(a)(2), Appendices 12B (Parameter Table-Confinement Categories), 12C (Offense Category Chart), and 12D (List of Criteria Offenses), 2024 MCM.
a. MAXIMUM PUNISHMENT: BCD, TF, 2 years, E-1. (Category 1)
b. SAMPLE SPECIFICATION:
In that __________ (personal jurisdiction data) did, (at/on board—location), on or about __________, through neglect, allow __________, a prisoner, to escape.
c. ELEMENTS:
(1) That (state the name of the prisoner alleged to have escaped) was a prisoner;
(2) That (state the name of the prisoner alleged) escaped;
(3) That (state the time and place alleged), the accused allowed (state the name of the prisoner alleged to have escaped) to escape by not taking such care to prevent the escape as a reasonably careful person, acting in the capacity in which the accused was acting, would have taken in the same or similar circumstances; and
(4) That the escape was the proximate result of the accused’s neglect.
d. DEFINITIONS AND OTHER INSTRUCTIONS:
A “prisoner” is a person who is in confinement or custody imposed pursuant to lawful apprehension, pre-trial restraint, or pre-trial confinement, or by the sentence of a court-martial, who has not been set free by a person with authority to release the prisoner.
“Escape” means any completed casting off of the restraint of confinement, before release by proper authority. Lack of effectiveness of the restraint imposed is immaterial. An escape is not complete until the prisoner is momentarily free from the restraint. (If the movement toward escape is opposed, or before it is completed, an immediate pursuit follows, there is no escape until opposition is overcome or pursuit is eluded.)
“Allow” means to permit; not to forbid or hinder.
“Proximate result” means a direct result of the accused’s neglect, and not the result of an unforeseeable cause not involving the accused.
NOTE 2: For an instruction on “proximate result” and causation, see Instruction 5-5.
(After an escape, the fact that a prisoner returns, is captured, killed, or otherwise dies, is not a defense.)