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| Inspector identifies violations at lockup |
| By pressherald.com - David Hench |
| Published: 03/15/2012 |
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PORTLAND - Maine's top jail inspector said Wednesday that the security breakdown that allowed a Cumberland County Jail inmate to sneak out of his maximum-security cell to have sex with a female inmate violated at least one mandatory state standard -- and possibly more. Ralph Nichols, director of correctional inspections for the Maine Department of Corrections, identified several key security concerns in an interview Wednesday: • The jail's staff failed to lock doors to the day rooms of the maximum-security areas for both male and female inmates. Nichols said those "perimeter doors" are supposed to be locked. • Some windows in the female inmates' day room face out into the housing unit, allowing male inmates to see inside. Nichols said state standards call for female and male inmates to be separated by "sight and sound," meaning they should not be able to see each other or speak with each other. • Although it is not required by state standards, Nichols also said jail guards should manually check cell doors when making their rounds, to make sure the doors are latched. If guards had done that Friday night at the county jail, they could have detected that the locks on the two inmates' cells had been jimmied. Those and other security breakdowns enabled Arien L'Italien, 23, of Biddeford to sneak into the cell of Karla Wilson, 25, of Portland. The two had sex around midnight Saturday. L'Italien was caught as he crawled back toward his cell, across a second-floor stair landing that separates the day rooms for men and women. Corrections officers at a station on the first floor saw L'Italien's foot above the landing. Nichols said jails must meet all of the mandatory state standards and 90 percent of the standards that are classified as "essential." The Department of Corrections does not impose sanctions for violations, but jails that don't meet standards must develop plans to address the deficiencies and have them approved by the state's corrections commissioner. Read More. |
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