When I was a kid, people in the neighborhood would tell me (and the other kids) to go inside because "prisoners were out because the jail was on fire."

When I was a kid, we would play outside a lot like kids tend to do. There was a prison up the road near us. It was literally in the middle of the city near a lot of homes. Ours was one of the closest homes to the jail, so there was a police car parked across the street from us almost all the time. Every once in a while, someone would knock on our door frantically and ask to use the phone. The person at the door would always give us some short story like: "The jail/prison is on fire!" "The jail/prison was in an uprising." "The jail/prison was breached!" Or, something along those lines. They never were specific. Just that the jail was in some sort of turmoil and prisoners were out. After getting permission to use the phone (we never said no), they would call the police and report their location to the person on the phone. Then they would sit on our front porch and wait for the police to arrive. This happened several times over the years that we lived there. It happened to the other kids in the neighborhood as well. It wasn't strange. I guess we were just used to it after a while. Also, it was the 80s and not the safest of times in general. It wasn't weird to have a bunch of strangers coming up to the door asking to use the phone because the jail/prison was compromised. After calling the police, they would usually just wait on the porch for the police to arrive. They would never come in the house. I remember one time someone tried to convince us to let them in the house. We were two boys at the time (around 12 and 15 or so). We said no because we didn't want Mom's cat to get out, which was a lame excuse. But they persisted saying that the jail was on fire and they needed to stay inside. Eventually, we caved and let them in. They looked around the house a bit before sitting in the living room to wait for the police. They were wearing prison clothes. At the time, I had a distinct feeling that something wasn't right about them being in the house. I think it was just a vibe or a feeling of impending doom. So I went into my brother's room (he was 15 and in high school and wasn't home at the time). I called him at school and asked him to come home right away because we had let a prisoner in the house. He was like "what? Why is there a prisoner in the house?" And I'm like "the prison/jail is on fire." And he's like "why did you let them in the house?" And I'm like "because the prison/jail is on fire." I don't know. I was 12. I didn't know any better. Anyway, he said he was leaving school and would be home in an hour or so. So, the prisoner and I are sitting in the living room waiting for the police to arrive. They kept looking out the window periodically. I asked them "what were you in for?" Without looking at me, they responded by saying "I wasn't in for anything. The prison/jail just caught on fire and we are all outside of it." I said "Oh, well when will they let you back in?" They responded with "The jail/prison is completely gone. It's nothing but a pile of ash and rubble." This is weird. Because they just said the jail/prison was on fire, not blown up or demolished. So I said "well, why didn't you stay at the jail/prison and wait for the firefighters to come and put out the flames?" That's when they snapped at me and said "I fucking told you! The prison/jail is fucking gone!" Then the phone rang. My brother was on the other line checking in (he was still about 45 minutes away from home) and wanted to know if I was okay. The prisoner got up and walked over to me while I was on the phone and said "yeah, I'm going to go ahead and walk around the block until the police arrive. I'll be back in about 20 minutes." I said "Okay, sure thing." I tell my brother on the phone what just happened and he says "what the fuck? Why did you let them in the house?" And I responded with "because the prison/jail is on fire." Within about 10 minutes of hanging up the phone with my brother, he called back frantically and asked me if I was okay. I said I was and he told me to go check all the windows and doors in the house and report back to him. It was weird. He just wanted me to go check all the windows and doors in the house. And to make sure they were all locked. I thought that was weird, but I did it anyway. Because, why not? I mean, I think it was a bored thing to do anyway. Anyway, after all the windows and doors were locked, I reported back to my brother and told him that everything was locked down. He asked me if I could see the prisoner out the window. I said no. Then he said "well, I want you to go outside a look around the entire house and see if you can see or find the prisoner anywhere." Again, weird request. But I did it anyway. I went all the way around the house. The prisoner was nowhere to be found. So, I called my brother and told him I couldn't find the prisoner anywhere. About that time, my brother pulls up in the driveway in his car. And he didn't even put the car in park before he jumped out of it and ran into the house. I'm in the living room. And as he runs through the front door, he's looking around the room and saying "is he in here?" And I'm like "no, I couldn't find him." And he's like "come on," as he's grabbing my hand and dragging me out the front door. We jumped in his car and drove to a nearby drugstore. Once we were in the drugstore, he used the payphone to call the police. Then we waited at the drugstore for about 45 minutes for the police to arrive. I guess the police and all the other law enforcement agencies in the city were looking for prisoners. Eventually, they caught up with us at the drugstore and wanted to know the details of what happened. So, my brother tells them everything. I guess they ended up putting out an APB for a very dangerous prisoner that escaped from the jail/prison. They found him a few days later hiding in some lady's house on the complete other side of town. Turns out, he was in for murder. And he wasn't with the other prisoners that were walking around the neighborhood trying to get to safety. But, years later after we moved away from the neighborhood, I read an article about the prison/jail we lived near. It was a front page article in the paper. Turns out, they had made changes to the design and architecture of the jail/prison to prevent future uprisings and breakouts. I think it was like a multi million dollar renovation or something. Anyway, the article specifically mentioned how the jail/prison was subject to many prisoners walking away from it over the years because of how poorly it was designed. I guess the prisoners would just walk away from it into the neighborhood and the police wouldn't know about it until they received a report from a citizen. So, in hindsight, this was the case for most of the people who would come to our door over the years. But, in the moment, as kids, we just kind of assumed that the jail/prison caught on fire every once in a while. It makes more sense now. Because I could never understand how a jail/prison would catch fire that many times without burning to the ground and someone not eventually fixing the problem. Anyway, after reading the article, it made me wonder if the guy who showed up at our door that day was lying about being a prisoner. And, was he casing our house? Did he plan to rob it at some point in the future? It was weird and I have no answers for those questions. But, I do know that I don't want to meet that guy again. So, guy who showed up at the door and asked to use the phone because the jail/prison was on fire (or whatever reason you had), let's not meet again.

When I was a kid, people in the neighborhood would tell me (and the other kids) to go inside because "prisoners were out because the jail was on fire."

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