![Shunekndrick Huffman was captured within hours of his escape (Image: Mississippi Department of Corrections/Newsflash)](/upload/news/2023/08/02/81591.jpg)
A jailbreaker who bafflingly escaped with just four months left to serve on his prison sentence has been imprisoned by judges for a further 40 years.
Shunekndrick Huffman busted out of the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility on August 25 last year but was back in his cell within hours. The 21-year-old inmate had been serving a seven-year sentence for aggravated assault but was due for release in December.
Following his escape, he broke into a nearby home and held the owner and their two daughters at gunpoint. After keeping the terrified family members hostage for several hours, he stole a car from one of them but had to flee on foot after crashing the vehicle.
He was caught almost instantly hiding in a dumpster at Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield, just two miles from the jail. On July 31, a judge sentenced Huffman to 60 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections after he pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping.
Two thirds of his sentence must be served in the state prison, the Rankin County District Attorney's office reported. Mississippi Department of Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain told the news station that the facility would improve its siren system to prevent future escapes. In May, two inmates escaped from Mississippi's Raymond Detention Center, just weeks after four other detainees broke out of the same jail, authorities said.
Joseph Spring and Michael Lewis, both 31, were discovered missing following a head count conducted after a deputy noticed items and 'what appeared to be blood' near the facility's outer perimeter fence. Officers found there had been a breach in the ceiling of one of the facility's rooms and believe that's how the two men got out.