Clinton Suspends Furloughs as Inmate Is Charged in Hijacking

Prisoner furloughs for good behavior were suspended Friday at the request of Gov. Bill Clinton after an inmate on furlough allegedly hijacked an airplane, the governor’s office said.

The action followed the escape Thursday of Charles Lloyd Patterson Sr., 47, of Batesville, whom the FBI charged with hijacking a charter flight within Arkansas.

Patterson was sentenced in 1988 to 40 years in prison after convictions on several charges, including solicitation to commit murder. He also was being sought in connection with an early morning robbery Friday at a Batesville residence.

Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, ordered state law enforcement agencies to assist the FBI in locating Patterson. He also asked the state Correction Board chairman to conduct an “immediate and thorough review” of the furlough system.

In January, Clinton had written to the Correction Department asking for a review and expressing concern about the furlough system.

In the 1988 presidential race, President Bush used the case of an escaped inmate in Massachusetts as a campaign issue against Democratic nominee Michael S. Dukakis. Willie Horton, a convicted murderer, raped a Maryland woman after escaping while on weekend furlough from the Massachusetts prison system.

The FBI filed a criminal complaint Friday alleging that Patterson had committed air piracy and had threatened the pilot with a handgun.

The chartered plane left Pine Bluff on Thursday afternoon bound for Little Rock, but Patterson forced the pilot from his seat and landed the aircraft at Carlisle, said Don Whitehead, the FBI’s assistant special agent in Little Rock. Patterson forced the pilot to leave the aircraft at Carlisle and the plane departed again, he said.