Feds bought nearly 90,000 inmates one-way bus tickets to transfer them to new prison

Is this one of those too weird to believe stories that makes you shake your head? Yes, it sure is, the bus companies (and passengers) aren't even told that an unescorted federal prisoner is on board tranferring himself to another prison. WM By Abigail Goldman, Las Vegas Sun Dwayne Keith Fitzen — "Shadow" to fellow inmates at the federal prison in Waseca, Minn. — was halfway through his 24-year sentence when prison officials decided to move him to a facility in California. To make the transfer, the Bureau of Prisons did something fairly routine for the government agency: It bought Shadow a one-way bus ticket and sent him, traveling unsupervised and unmarked, on the two-day trip. Fitzen was 55 at the time, a motorcycle gang member convicted of dealing cocaine. He got off the bus in Las Vegas, about 400 miles short of his scheduled destination, and became a fugitive. Five years later he's still at large. Since April 2006, the Bureau of Prisons has allowed 89,794 federal inmates to be transferred without escorts, traveling mainly by bus. The rationale behind the unescorted transfers, according to bureau spokeswoman Traci Billingsley, is purely economic: Having prison officials, or U.S. marshals, in charge of moving inmates who have been prescreened and deemed low-risk would be incredibly expensive, she said. Exactly how much it would cost, the Bureau of Prisons doesn't know. Excerpt, click title for full article