Days before 10 men broke out of a Louisiana jail, officials asked for funding to fix faulty locks and cell doors, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said. The investigation into the Friday jailbreak—which the escapees labeled as "easy" in a message scrawled on a cell wall above the narrow hole they squeezed through—is continuing as officers search for the remaining seven fugitives. Hutson said she has long raised concerns about the jail's "deficiencies," adding that the breakout has "once again highlighted the critical need for repairs and upgrades" to its infrastructure, the AP reports.
While Hutson said the locks played a key role in the escape, there are other crucial security lapses that officials have outlined: indications that the escape was an inside job, with three sheriff's employees now on suspension; the hole that officials said may have been formed using power tools; a lack of monitoring of the cell pod, as the employee tasked with the job had stepped out for food; and law enforcement not being aware of the escape until a morning headcount seven hours after the men fled. A state lawmaker objected to the sheriff's explanation on Monday. "Rather than take accountability, she's pointed fingers elsewhere," Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman said in a statement. "Blaming funding is a deflection—not an excuse."
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Monday that state and local officials, courts, and law enforcement are working together to hastily address issues at the jail. Murrill acknowledged that the jail had been experiencing staffing shortages and maintenance defects for years. Early last week, the chief of corrections for the Orleans Justice Center — presented a need for a new lock system during the city's Capital Improvement Plan hearing. Jeworski Mallet said the current system at the jail, which houses around 1,400 people, was built for a "minimum custody-type of inmate." He said many being held now are awaiting trials in violent crimes.
(More
jailbreaking stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
