Billy Hayes: It looks like a cheap hotel.
Jimmy: Only the room service is lousy. I'm Jimmy Booth. This is Erich - something Swedish, I don't know.
Erich: Just Erich.
Jimmy: He cleaned you up.
Billy Hayes: Thanks. I'm Billy Hayes. At least, I used to be.
Tex: How much did you pay this joker? This cab driver?
Billy Hayes: Two hundred dollars. It was my last two hundred.
Tex: How much did you figure to make?
Billy Hayes: I was only gonna sell some of it to my friends. I'm not a pusher. Honest.
Tex: It beats workin'. Do you get a family back home?
Billy Hayes: Yeah, a mother, father, brother, sister in Babylon, Long Island.
Tex: It'll be tough on 'em.
Jimmy: The second way out, I need you guy's help, and that's under.
Billy Hayes: You mean tunnel? Are you serious?
Max: This is Shagmahr prison, not Stalag 17.
Jimmy: Well that's where you're wrong fuckface, 'cause it's already built.
Billy Hayes: Dear Susan: Poor Jimmy was caught and beaten so badly he got a severe hernia, and lost a testicle. He's been in the sanitarium for months. In comparison, my problems seem very small.
Answer: I don't recall that it was explained, but it was probably stolen from a guard at some point and later traded from another prisoner.
raywest ★
I could assume that, sure, but I was looking for a more precise explanation. The more likely explanation is that they needed a light and the writers hoped no-one would notice. Seems like they could have used some sort of burning torches instead.
Smokyoak
There is no precise explanation because it's not revealed in the plot how they got it. What they "could" have used is fan speculation, which opens dozens of possibilities, none of which are substantiated or relevant. They obviously obtained the flashlight, so that is what they used. How they got it, we don't know.
raywest ★