Welcome aboard … Con Air: What it’s REALLY like inside the flights that transport inmates across state lines – including terrifying encounters and Chris Brown singing throughout an entire flight
- The official name of the Con Air program is Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, transporting 200,000 inmates a year
- A podcast called Chasing Evil has launched an episode looking at the stories behind these tense, nervy flights with criminals
- Celebrities, including Chris Brown, R. Kelly and Ghislaine Maxwell, have also flown on private jets
They may not be quite as thrilling as Nicholas Cage in the movie Con Air – but the United States’ program for transporting inmates across state lines has certainly dealt with its fair share of colorful – and often terrifying – characters over the years.
Now, in a new episode of true crime podcast ‘Chasing Evil’, listeners can get a glimpse behind the curtain of what really goes on aboard these flights.
The official name of the Con Air program, which was set up in 1995, is the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, or JPATS.
The Marshals Service, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, military and state law enforcement all use the program – as the catchphrase goes: ‘You must be indicted to be invited.’
In 2021 alone, JPATS supervised 113,768 prisoner movements by air, serving 42 domestic and international cities, according to US Marshals’ data.
And as podcast host Christopher Godsick explains, agents face everything from the most terrifying of killers to celebrities such as Martha Stewart, Michael Vick or even singer Chris Brown, who simply wouldn’t stop humming a tune throughout his flight.
It’s not quite movie stars like Nicolas Cage in Con Air, but the United States’ program to transport inmates across state lines has seen some colorful characters over the years
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Godsick – an agent and producer who has worked on TV shows like Veep and films like Face/Off – said visiting the actual Boeing 737s was shocking… in how normal it all seemed.
‘It is extraordinarily normal,’ he said. ‘There is nothing on that flight that would indicate anything significant, except the logo of the US marshals.’
Although, JPATS Chief of Operations Mark McPherson initially joked the program is ‘exactly like’ what you see in the over-the-top Nicolas Cage action film 1997 film.
McPherson describes their business as similar to FedEx, where they have a simple job to do, just instead of packages they take care of prisoners.
The bureau of prisons often move prisoners up to four to five times within a typical sentence.
They can be moved simply based on where they’re captured to where they are supposed to stand trial or be charged.
One of the major hubs JPATS flies through is in Oklahoma City, which is a rare airport that has a prison on site, Godsick said.
While planes are known for having black boxes to record audio from the cabin, some prisoner are designated as ‘black box prisoners’ – where they are put in extra secure handcuffs to ‘lessen the amount of movement’, according to McPherson.
The COO tells host Christopher Godsick that while criminals affiliated with similar gangs are typically split up (and prisoners are often split up by gender), at one point on special request they carried a flight with 71 MS-13 members on it.
‘There was mitigation there, crew members and preparation, security personnel for sure,’ McPherson noted.
Godsick notes ‘there is more service’ on these types of flights than any other, as each has a medic to deal with prisoner health issues. However, the food isn’t necessarily escaping the reputation of airline food, as passengers are served bologna and it is often pre-made and frozen.
He also said he visited one of the Boeing 737s used to transport inmates and found it heavily differs from the movie, noting there are no ‘steel cages’ for each prisoner, which he joked was ‘a little disappointing’.
‘I was expecting a flying fortress and what I got was a Southwest flight. It was a little less exciting than what I was hoping for. It was shockingly normal and the inmates were just, maybe, happy to get out of a cell.’
A new episode of the true crime podcast ‘Chasing Evil’ digs deeper into the program and some of the scary and entertaining stories faced by their agents
The official name of the Con Air program is the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System, or JPATS, which was created via a 1995 merger between the air fleets of the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement
JPATS agents prepare to escort prisoners onto a plane to transport them across state lines
JPATS supervised 113,768 prisoner movements by air in 2021, serving 42 domestic and international cities. Overall, they transferred 841 prisoners a day by both ground and air, according to US Marshals’ data
Speaking to DailyMail.com, Chasing Evil host Christopher Godsick – an agent and producer who has worked on TV shows like Veep and films like Face/Off – said visiting the actual Boeing 737s was shocking – in how normal it all seemed
‘It is extraordinarily normal,’ he said. ‘There is nothing on that flight that would indicate anything significant, except the logo of the US marshals’
One of the pertinent questions was about what is done if a prisoner needs to use the bathroom. While requests are typically granted, air marshals will usually spend a segment of the flight asking inmates if they need to go.
Spitting and biting was one of the most common offenses guards and marshals had to deal with.
There are some more famous and infamous prisoners who end up being taken on their own JPATS flight.
The US Marshals typically determines if prisoners receive smaller, private flights, like disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, though most are for those with medical conditions.
One of the JPATS workers noted that Kelly ‘seemed like a nice guy and he came off very personable and was very respectful’ when speaking to him and said he did not like to fly.
He did note this was a common occurrence with heinous offenders and probably ‘why they were so successful at victimizing people’.
They added that while Kelly rolled his eyes at a joke request to sing ‘I Believe I can Fly,’ fellow R&B star Chris Brown would sing through his entire flight without the marshals asking, suggesting it was a nervous tic. Eventually, Brown was taking requests.
Recent criminals who have flown include Ghislaine Maxwell, US gymnastics sex predator Larry Nasser, and several arrested for January 6th-related crimes, including the ‘QAnon Shaman’.
For Godsick, his podcast deals with many of the people who fly under the radar when it comes to catching some of the worst of the worst.
The Chasing Evil podcast speaks to marshals and other special forces agents who deal with some of the world’s most heinous criminals
Christopher Godsick, the host of the podcast, is an agent and producer who has worked on films such as Face/Off and TV shows such as Veep
The logo of the DOJ and the United States Marshals are often the only thing distinguishing JPATS planes
The ‘black box’ handcuffs meant to restrain particularly hard to pin down inmates
The JPATS program was the inspiration for the the 1997 action thriller Con Air starring Nicolas Cage
Recent criminals who have flown through with them include Ghislaine Maxwell, several arrested for January 6th-related crimes, including the ‘QAnon Shaman,’ and US gymnastics sex predator Larry Nasser
He’s been able to get agents and officers who have, in many cases, never spoken about their work before to open up about their experiences when dealing with heinous crimes.
‘It’s building a trust and a reputation within the marshal service and it’s getting other deputies to vouch for you that I’m open and interested in telling, not coming to it with any prejudices,’ he said. ‘It’s really building up a trust. Sometimes it takes a little bit of conversation.’
He called his podcast an ‘open and honest conversation you would get if you went out with your friends for a meal and the public is not usually exposed to those perspectives’ from officers of this caliber.
Upcoming episodes deal with Ruby Ridge and the transporting of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman.
He said the lesson he’s learned from the show is that ‘the devil is in the detail’.
‘The more I learn about the law, in some cases how frustrating it can be, the more respect I have,’ Godsick adds.
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