|
|
| Correction Lapses Admitted in Prisoner's Escape via Bus |
| By New York Times |
| Published: 03/22/2004 |
|
There are not many places in the world where a jail inmate can flee a boat by riding a bus, but Ivan Jones found a way to do it when he broke out of a city jail last month, the New York City correction commissioner said last week. Mr. Jones, 19, escaped from the Vernon C. Bain Center, the department's 800-bed jail barge moored on the East River in the South Bronx, on Feb. 20. Interrogated after being caught last week, Mr. Jones gave correction officials details that revealed a mixture of daring and quick-thinking by Mr. Jones, and - more than anything else - sloppy work by the jail staff, jail officials said. Mr. Jones was handcuffed, by one wrist only, to another inmate in a group that was about to be transported by bus from the barge to a jail on Rikers Island, said Martin F. Horn, the correction commissioner, conveying the escape details to a jail oversight board. Mr. Jones slipped out of the handcuff and, apparently without any employee seeing him, dashed under the Department of Correction bus, Mr. Horn said. He clung to the undercarriage as the other inmates boarded and held on as the bus pulled away, Mr. Horn said. At some point on the streets of the South Bronx, Mr. Jones rolled out from under the bus and walked away, Mr. Horn said. Human error enabled this to happen, Mr. Horn said. For one thing, correction officers are required to check under buses before departing, and failure do do so was an inexcusable lapse, Mr. Horn said. Second, there was one more inmate folder on hand as the bus left than there were inmates on the bus, a clue that apparently did not register with anyone as the bus rumbled away, Mr. Horn said. "This was a matter of staff being sloppy," Mr. Horn said. Six officers and one captain were suspended without pay for 15 days, a department spokesman said. In addition, the Correction Department now requires both wrists of each inmate to be handcuffed. As for Mr. Jones, who had been in jail on robbery and burglary charges, the police rearrested him at a friend's home in the Bronx. In addition to his previous charges, he was also charged with escape. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think