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| Convicted Felon Gets Lost In Indiana Jail Shuffle |
| By WRTV |
| Published: 11/26/2002 |
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Overcrowding at the Marion County, Ind., Jail may have led to a convicted felon being released early to allegedly commit more crimes. Quintin Thompson, 34, a convicted burglar, was already on parole when he was arrested again for theft and released from jail shortly afterward, RTV6's Sarah Fraidin reported. Parole officials admitted that they weren't aware of Thompson's whereabouts, and that he hadn't been assigned a parole officer, Fraidin reported. 'Only when we were contacted by your station to inquire about him did we realize he had been here,' Department of Corrections parole supervisor Art Hegewald said. Hegewald said that the department believed Thompson was living with family in Texas, when in fact, he had been in the Marion County Jail twice, Fraidin reported. 'If we were aware he was back and had been arrested, we probably would have had a warrant on him at that time,' Hegewald said. The warrant would have been for violating parole because Thompson was arrested for theft Sept. 10. He was released Oct. 4 because of jail overcrowding, Fraidin reported. 'After I got out on that, I was like, 'Well, maybe I'm not on it no more,'' Thompson said from jail. 'I wasn't really sure ... but I thought I had more time ... I had some more months left, I know that much.' Between the time Thompson (pictured, below) was released Oct. 4 until he was arrested again Oct. 31, police said he burglarized schools like IPS 11, IPS 83, churches like Mount Zion and St. Marks, day care centers and several homes, Fraidin reported. 'I've been able to connect him with 15 (burglaries), probably going to be more when final count is in,' IPD Detective Al Watson said. 'There are 15 I can actually put him with.' Tracey Ackles identified Thompson as the man he caught breaking into his home Oct. 19. 'You would think they wouldn't let anyone out early for any reason knowing his history,' Ackles said. The problem was, when Thompson was released, no one at the jail knew his history -- except for him. 'I was more or less like, 'If they don't say nothing to me, I'm not going to say nothing to them,'' Thompson said. Parole officials said that even when the system works as it's supposed to, mistakes still happen. 'The parole agent checks routinely, but it's quite possible that somebody can slip through the cracks, if he's arrested on his parole agent's vacation day or just simply not noted due to the numbers,' Hegewald said. Each parole officer is assigned more than 100 convicts to monitor. Thompson admitted that he intentionally takes advantage of the overloaded system, Fraidin reported. Within an hour of the phone call from RTV6 inquiring about Thompson, a warrant was issued for his arrest for alleged violations of parole. Under this type of warrant, even if the jail reaches capacity, Thompson won't be released, Fraidin reported. |
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