The defendant appeals (G.L.c. 278, §§ 33A-33G) from his conviction after a jury-waived trial of violating G.L.c. 268, § 16, as appearing in St. 1973, c. 1062, § 1, which provides that "[a] prisoner who escapes . . . from any penal institution . . . shall be punished. . . ." According to the stipulation of facts, on September 27, 1978, the defendant was being held in lieu of bail at the Billerica house of correction. At approximately 7:45 P.M. on that date the defendant and two other inmates escaped from the jail by cutting through the bars on a cell window and lowering themselves to the ground with a rope. The three then went over the facility's fence and left the grounds. They were later apprehended and returned to the facility.
The sole issue on appeal is whether G.L.c. 268, § 16, applies to a pretrial detainee held in lieu of bail who escapes from a county jail. We conclude that it does. The defendant contends that c. 268, § 16, is not applicable to the facts in this case because a jail is not a "penal institution" within the meaning of that statute and he is not a "prisoner." These arguments are foreclosed by this court's decision in Commonwealth v. Pettijohn, 4 Mass. App. Ct. 847, 847-848 (1976), in which we stated, "It is clear that an escape from . . . either a county jail or a house of correction is considered an escape from a penal institution within the purview of G.L.c. 268, § 16." See G.L.c. 125, § 1( k), ( d) and ( m), as appearing in St. 1972, c. 777, § 8. In light of this and other decisions of the Massachusetts courts construing G.L.c. 268, § 16, broadly to apply to all escaping prisoners (see Commonwealth v. Hughes, 364 Mass. 426, 428-431 [1973]; Commonwealth v. Reed, 364 Mass. 545, 547-548 [1974]; Commonwealth v. Sneed, 3 Mass. App. Ct. 33, 33-34 [1975]), we are not persuaded by the defendant's arguments urging us to distinguish, for purposes of the escape statute, between prisoners who have been convicted and sentenced to a correctional facility and individuals awaiting trial who are placed in custody in a correctional facility in accordance with law.
Judgment affirmed.