Article M-905 - Prison Escape

"You left before the State was finished with you. A full day is added to what you already owed, and no part of it may be bought."

Every other article in the Code answers something a citizen did in the world. M-905 answers something done to the Code itself. An escape says that the sentence was optional, and the State cannot let that stand without answering it.

A Flat Term, Not a Ladder

M-905 is the one crime article that does not escalate. The term is a flat twenty-four hours, added to whatever was already owed, and a second escape draws the same twenty-four as the first. There is no doubling and no ceiling to reach, because the article is not trying to deter a pattern. It is restoring the sentence the escape interrupted, plus the cost of the interruption.

On Bail

There is no bail under M-905. Buying out of a term imposed for refusing to serve a term would empty the article of meaning, and the Code does not entertain it.

On the Record

An escape leaves the heaviest mark the watch reads anywhere in the Code. A citizen who has broken out is, for as long as the mark stands, the single most conspicuous traveler on any road a power patrols. See The Roads and the Watch.