Bear keeps inmates in line

Inmates contemplating escape from a Louisiana prison could face something scarier than the warden.

Prisoners have spotted a 450-pound black bear roaming the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, a maximum security facility.

"I love that bear being right where it is," Warden Burl Cain told the Associated Press. "I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It's like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer."

Officials think there are about eight to ten bears on the isolated prison's grounds, along with alligators, rattlesnakes and wild pigs.