- Most people don't ever want to set foot inside a jail.
- But in rare cases, some people actually get arrested on purpose so they can go to jail.
- Some of the more outlandish cases include a woman who wanted to quit smoking, and a man who simply wanted to find out what jail was like.
Most people try to avoid getting caught breaking the law.
But in some unusual cases, people go out of their way to get caught committing a crime, all because they want to go to jail.
Some of them saw jail as a way to get healthcare, or escape the cold. Others simply wanted to find out what jail was like, to name a few.
We've compiled seven cases in which people intentionally got arrested. Read on to find out why:
To sneak contraband into jail
At Clark County Jail in Jeffersonville Indiana, 80% of inmates are there on drug-related charges, and drug use within the jail was rampant.
Still, jail staff were having trouble identifying the source of the drugs — until they stumbled on an intricate ruse devised by the inmates.
As they learned, inmates were communicating with accomplices on the outside using illegally obtained cell phones. The accomplices would get arrested on purpose and smuggle drugs into the jail in their body orifices. They would then sell the drugs for a higher price than they could get on the streets, and the drugs would get distributed throughout the jail under inmates' food trays.
The scheme was highlighted on the documentary series "60 Days In," which followed seven people who went undercover as inmates at the jail.
To get access to healthcare
The need for life-saving healthcare inspired one man to intentionally get arrested in 2012.
Frank Morrocco of Amherst, New York, was released from prison earlier that year after serving 20 years on felony drug conspiracy charges.
Unable to afford healthcare for a rare form of leukemia, the 56-year-old Morrocco walked into a Wegman's grocery store, stepped up to the counter, and took $23 worth of goods in plain sight of store employees before walking out.
He was eventually arrested on a shoplifting charge — a violation of his supervised release that Morrocco said he hoped would land him back in prison.
"It was an act of desperation. I went into that store and took things I didn’t need, and I made sure a lot of people saw me," Morrocco told The Buffalo News. "At the time I did it, I felt that I didn’t have any other way to get the care that I need for my leukemia."
It was not reported whether Morrocco got the treatment, and he was released from prison in April 2013.
To quit smoking
In 2012, a woman in Sacramento, California, was arrested for slapping a county deputy outside the county jail.
As she explained afterward, she had waited outside the jail for hours waiting for a deputy — any deputy — to smack in the face. Her reasoning? She wanted to go to jail to force her to quit smoking cigarettes.
The woman, Etta Mae Lopez, got her wish: she was sentenced to 63 days in jail, plus three years of probation.
Lopez's neighbor said she was disappointed in her friend's scheme.
"There's easier ways to stop smoking than hitting a cop," he said, according to a local CBS affiliate."No, that’s not the way I want to quit."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider