Wood

J.— In this prohibition proceeding petitioner seeks to prevent his trial upon a charge of violating Penal Code section 4532, subdivision (a), escape from a county jail, one of four counts in the information filed by the district attorney. The writ will issue, for the undisputed evidence before the committing magistrate established no violation of the statute.

After the subtraction of language surplus to our needs, subdivision (a) of section 4532 provides: “Every prisoner arrested and booked for, charged with, or convicted of a misdemeanor, . . . who is confined in any county or city jail ... or who is in the lawful custody of any officer or person, . . . and who thereafter escapes or attempts to escape from such county or city jail, ... or from the custody of any officer or person in whose lawful custody he is, is guilty of a felony ....”

As the result of a barroom altercation, petitioner had been arrested, taken to the city police station and placed in a holding cell with five other persons. The cell was approximately 9 by 12 feet in size; three walls were of concrete and the fourth consisted of a fixed wire mesh screen with a swinging wire mesh door equipped with two…