5 Women Escape From State Prison

Five female inmates apparently squeezed between steel bars on a window to escape in December, 1984 from a maximum-security section of the Niantic Correctional Institution, the state's only prison for women, officials said.

It was found between 10 P.M. and 10:30 P.M. Saturday that the women were missing, during a bed check at the prison, said Connie Wilks, a spokesman for the State Correction Department.

They were last seen in the prison about 9:30 P.M., she said.

The authorities were investigating how the women got between the bars, which are 15 inches high and spaced 7 3/4 inches apart, covering the entire window, the spokesman said. Niantic Correctional Institution is ''open- campus style, with no fences around the perimeter,'' she said.

Based on the NYTimes article