Jailbreak: Love on the Run – Review | Netflix (3/5)

JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN on Netflix is a new documentary about Vicki White and Casey White who went on the run together. She was a corrections officer and he was an inmate. Read our full Jailbreak: Love on the Run documentary review here!

JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN is a new Netflix True Crime Documentary. With a runtime of just 88 minutes, it’s a quick watch but the story is covered in depth.

The case in this true crime production is about an Alabama corrections officer who falls in love with a man awaiting trial for murder. She helps him escape and the two go on the run to be together. Romantic or just crazy? You decide.

Continue reading our Jailbreak: Love on the Run documentary review below. Find it on Netflix from September 25, 2024.

A modern Romeo & Juliet? Not really.

If you know nothing about this true crime case, then this review will contain a few spoilers. I will, however, refrain from mentioning how it all ends.

Instead, I’ll tell you that Jailbreak: Love on the Run begins when Vicky White meets Casey White in 2020. The two fall in love and have many phone call conversations which are recorded as Casey is an inmate.

Including steamy calls!

Then in 2022, Vicky White tells her colleagues that she’s ready to retire. Having worked for 17 years at the Lauderdale County Detention Center in Florence, Alabama, the long hours have taken its drain on her.

She’s the assistant director of operations and has been awarded “Corrections Officer of the Year” in the past. Both colleagues and inmates love her. No one quite as Casey White did though.

Going out with a bang

Vicky told a co-worker that she would go out with a bang. And boy did she. After eating cake and celebrating her retirement, she used the very last day of her job — April 29, 2022 – to break out Casey White (no relation, the name is common).

They were supposedly going to the Florence courthouse for Casey White to have a mental health evaluation prior to his trial. But the two never came back. Instead, they went on the run. Hence the title of Jailbreak: Love on the Run.

Well, it was a detention center, but that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.

VICKY WHITE AND DANNEMORA?

If you’ve watched the 2018 Showtime mini-series Escape at Dannemora, then this story might seem familiar. Patricia Arquette played the lead in that series.

However, Vicky White and Casey White didn’t meet until 2020, so the two are not connected. Just coincidentally similar!

I have no doubt that some will find it oh so romantic that the two lovebirds go on the run together. I am not one of them. And I am a big fan of love. I love love. This, however, feels more like an escape from a life that wasn’t very fulfilling.

Especially when you hear what Casey White has done prior to meeting Vicky White.

A white man in Alabama

Not only was he already serving a 75-year sentence for several very brutal actions, he is now heading to trial for a capital murder. This would result in him going to death row, so they needed to get away before that could happen.

Also, seeing his arrest for the crimes (yes, plural) that led to the sentence of 75 years made me angry. The Sheriff is almost chuckling as he describes the arrest, where Casey White demanded that the Sheriff himself should show up.

He threatened to take his own life and wanted the Sheriff there because they already knew each other from his many previous issues with abiding by the law.

All I could think was he would be long dead if he wasn’t a white man in the South. A black man wouldn’t have survived half of the actions Casey White has. And no sheriff would be thinking back on his arrest and chuckle!

Watch Jailbreak: Love on the Run on Netflix now!

The story is told via Vicky White’s friends and former colleagues, so we hear a lot of firsthand accounts. They are as shocked as the rest of us that this could happen.

And, surprisingly, at least one former colleague was almost rooting for her.

I can’t claim that I understand that, though I do appreciate anyone going after what they want. And consenting adults loving one another is fine by me. Helping a dangerous man escape, when you’re meant to be his keeper, is not.

Of course, that’s also what makes this true crime so fascinating.

While the true crime case itself does make me sick – Casey White is a man who clearly belongs in prison – I did like the production of Jailbreak: Love on the Run.

Jailbreak: Love on the Run is out on Netflix on September 25, 2024.