Sheriff walks through prison break

The method of last week’s jailbreak was made public Thursday afternoon as St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain gave local media a step-by-step tour of the mechanics of the escape.

Four prisoners escaped from the St. Tammany Jail last Thursday night. Three of them were caught several hours later. One prisoner, Timothy Murray, 30, who was waiting trial for first-degree murder eluded a huge manhunt for two days but was finally captured early Sunday morning in a wooded area near Folsom.

As uniformed guards escorted the group through locked doors down well-lit hallways, inmates were confined to regular quarters, except those in the affected cellblock. The maximum-security area is located in an older section of the building constructed in the 1970’s. Each cell houses 30 prisoners, 10 upstairs and 20 downstairs, and there are two prisoners to a room.

The cells empty into a common area where inmates are during the day, watching television, reading, eating, showering and so forth. At 10:30 p.m. the inmates are required to return to their cells for lights out and the cells are locked behind them.

Strain explained that before lights out, when inmates were still in the common area, the prisoners made their escape, one by one climbing the stairs and entering the corner cell, escaping through the seven-inch wide window and jumping to the ground.

They then cut airplane wire that secures the hurricane fencing of the inner perimeter to the ground and climbed through an equally small space to the outer perimeter.

They then climbed the fence, placed a pillow over the razor wire and climbed over to what they thought was freedom. They crossed a wooden bridge over a ditch and ran to the wooded area that surrounds the jail.

“I am making no excuses. This happened on my watch and I take full responsibility...I want to apologize to residents for any fear they experienced when the breakout occurred. My goal today is to keep residents informed,” Strain said.

Steps have been taken to secure every window in the facility to prevent a similar occurrence. In addition, Strain informed the Louisiana Sheriff’s association and the National Sheriff’s Association of the window’s design flaw that was exploited to make this escape.

In his letter to the associations, Strain thanked the media for allowing him to notify the associations and take needed precautions before releasing the mechanics of the jailbreak.

Strain said that three things worked together to make the breakout possible: the prisoners obtained a hacksaw to saw through the bars on the windows; they identified a window that was compromised; and the screws holding the window were inadequate and were able to be taken out of the window frame.

Strain is continuing to investigate how the hacksaw got into their hands. Although all jail maintenance equipment has been accounted for, he is still questioning personnel in an internal investigation.

He said the hacksaw blade came from outside the compound, but how it made its way to the inmates is still unknown.

“No matter who will be found to have provided this, they will punished as severely as the men that escaped,” he said.

By some estimates, it took as long as a year to saw through the eight welded flat bars, which helped, hold the window in place. Toothpaste was used to simulate the caulking they had removed from around the window. Once the bars were sawed, the screws were worked loose. “If the screws had not failed, they could not have escaped, even with a chainsaw,” said Strain.

In addition to the flat bars, 20 retention screws held the window in place. The screws simply fell to the ground once the window was pulled open to the inside. “Because the screws are attached from the outside, it would be impossible to cut through them — they are inaccessible from inside the cell,” said Strain.

Since the escape, the windows have all been fortified with cement or mortar, bars and the appropriate screws. All windows in the complex are being fortified to avoid other inmates from duplicating the feat.

Strain said that some of these inmates are in here for years and they form alliances with each other as time goes on. Although Strain said the escape was not a matter of deputy error, he did say there should be eyes outside to detect such attempts. He said the four inmates probably knew where the cameras were and would have been able to avoid detection from the cameras. He said there is no staff available to monitor all the cameras 24/7.

Strain said the steps that are being taken now will become the industry standard.

“We have a serious commitment to keep these inmates behind bars,” Strain said.

He added that he was happy that situation was brought to a quick conclusion without anyone being hurt.

When the current facility was built in the 1970s, it was state-of-the-art.

“We were certain it was secure. And if it had not been for a design flaw, the screws, we would still think it is secure,” Strain said.