Biography
Shoatz was a Black Power-era organizer in Philadelphia associated with the Black Panther and Black liberation movements. Over decades of incarceration, he became known for political writing and for being a symbol in campaigns criticizing long-term solitary confinement and arguing that some radical defendants were treated as political prisoners.
He was convicted in the 1970s for the murder of a Philadelphia police sergeant and sentenced to life imprisonment. Shoatz became widely known for two high-profile prison escapes (in 1977 and 1980), after which he spent many years in isolation; in 2021 he was granted compassionate release and died shortly afterward.
He escaped twice. On September 14, 1977 he escaped from SCI Huntingdon and was at large for 27 days before being recaptured that October. In March 1980 he escaped from Fairview State Hospital with another prisoner, after a revolver and a sub-machine gun were smuggled in; all three men involved were captured three days later following a gun battle with local, state and county police and FBI agents.
