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| Examining jail design after escape |
| By stltoday.com - JOEL CURRIER |
| Published: 06/28/2011 |
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ST. LOUIS - A missing ceiling panel still exposes the route through a crawlspace two inmates took in April before they shattered a large front window of the St. Louis Justice Center and shimmied down a bedsheet rope to freedom. On Thursday, city officials and jail staff led journalists on a tour of St. Louis' two jails, offering a glimpse inside the facilities after two inmates staged the first-ever jailbreak from the St. Louis Justice Center since it opened in 2002. The escapees were captured within hours of their escape, and a corrections officer has been charged with permitting the escape and lying about it. Gene Stubblefield, the city's corrections commissioner, said the jail has made no major changes but is conducting an audit of the Justice Center's design and security. He called the April 22 escape an "isolated incident" and blamed the failure on former corrections officer Mori Farrell and a "design flaw" in the ceiling above the infirmary where the inmates escaped. "Inmates will always show you your weaknesses," Stubblefield said Thursday. The escapees, Vernon L. Collins, 34, and David G. White, 33, crawled through an access panel in the jail's infirmary to reach a space above the ceiling, then broke through a metal barrier and used a metal piece from one of their bunk beds to break the window. Since the escape, Stubblefield said he has had new surveillance equipment installed in some parts of the jail and may get more depending on results of the audit due in August. He said supervisors also now conduct monthly checks on officers' daily inspection reports to ensure they monitor areas closely. That didn't happen the night of the escape, prosecutors say, when Farrell, 51, faked computer logs showing all inmates were in their cells. A week after the jailbreak, Farrell was charged with two felony counts of permitting escape, five felony counts of forgery, for falsifying records; and one misdemeanor count of making a false declaration for lying to his boss. Read More. |
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