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| Two Escapes Attempted at Missouri Jail |
| By Marshfield Mail |
| Published: 10/07/2002 |
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On Sept. 22, a Webster County Jail trustee was caught attempting to saw through a chain to escape incarceration. Canaan Price was caught with a paring knife he'd taken from the cooking area and is no longer a trustee for the jail. According to Webster County Sheriff Ron Worsham, Price had sawed through a lock and began working on sawing through the chain. It is estimated that Price had been working on the escape for about a week. He has been transferred to the State Penitentiary at Fulton to be processed and transferred to a permanent facility. Worsham explained that trustees using knives is not abnormal. 'They do their own cooking,' the sheriff said, 'and they check out knives, so they can prepare the meals.' Inmates entrusted with cooking, said Worsham, return the cutlery when the meals have been prepared and the blades are checked back in. 'Someone didn't count correctly, and I'm dealing with that.' Worsham said that disciplinary action for the person responsible for the miscount was 'very likely.' When asked how such a mistake could occur, Worsham was forthcoming. 'Basically,' he said, 'a lot of the problem is training and that's our fault.' Typically, one week of training is provided in Jefferson City, but programs are hard to find. 'The training we do give them is a problem, because there's not that much training for jailers,' Worsham continued. Worsham went on to point out that training was not the only problem. 'The other part of the problem is the facility,' he said, 'and that's not our fault.' One of the jail's shortcomings was an unsecured door, which was used by a woman, Vera Gast, of Seymour, awaiting booking who got up and attempted to use the elevator to escape. She was stopped by a Marshfield police officer. The door to the booking room will now require a combination punched into a keypad to get in or out. And the jail itself is seeing increased security measures, as a key lock to replace the electronic button is currently in place. Steps have been put in place to prevent another person awaiting booking from getting up and leaving. Gast got up and left, apparently, when the jail employees got busy and took their attention off of her. 'We're looking into that, too,' Worsham said. 'One of the problems is we don't have a secure facility.' |
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