Prison escape was banned because it worsened conditions for remaining inmates

Evidence

Buscetta also remarked: “In my time it was absolutely forbidden to escape from prison; this was because of solidarity toward the other inmates, who would inevitably have suffered a harshening of prison conditions as a result of the escape” (TB: I, 10). — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 928

Categorization

• XREF: A concrete instance of collective reputation enforcement — the collective-punishment externality Gambetta uses to explain mafia cohesion; connects to reader’s Schelling credible-commitment frame.
• SEED: Angle: ‘negative externalities as internal mafia discipline’ — how clans’ internal rules are shaped by the retaliation costs their members’ actions impose on the group.