There's a first time for everything — except when it comes to firing lazy guards who let murderers escape:

The guard who failed to stop the escape of murderer Malcolm Kysor has been reinstated to his job at the state prison at Albion [Pennsylvania].

The guard, Bryan Ruf, a sergeant and a member of the labor union for state corrections officers, was fired in January 2008. He was in charge of searching the truck on which Kysor, hiding in a garbage can meant for pig slop, escaped from the sally port at the medium-security State Correctional Institution at Albion on Nov. 25, 2007.

A labor arbitrator ordered Ruf rehired despite finding that he "took the lazy man's way out" and "failed to take his responsibilities seriously" when Kysor escaped, according to the arbitration ruling.

The arbitrator nonetheless said a lack of precedent made the state Department of Corrections' dismissal of Ruf unjustified. He said the D.O.C. has not fired a corrections officer connected to an inmate escape in at least 30 years. Kysor's escape was the first at a state D.O.C. facility since 1999.

The current superintendent Raymond Sobin used the terms "gross negligence" and "epitome of complacency" in his recommendation that Ruf be discharged. But Ruf's union wanted him back on the job, so back he comes.

Ruf's level of competence will become standard throughout the country after Comrade Obama uses the Employee Free Choice Act to put unions in charge of most every operation, both public and private.

On a tip from Hillman. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.