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| Video Cameras Bought, But Not Installed, When N.H. Prisoners Escaped |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 07/21/2003 |
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The N.H. state prison had purchased video surveillance cameras but had not yet installed them when three prisoners escaped last month, the state corrections commissioner said in a recent interview. Three men, including a convicted murderer, cut through two fences in the building trades area on June 4, but their escape went unnoticed for 15 to 20 minutes, authorities said at the time. The men were caught the next day at a campground in Plymouth, Mass. Corrections Commissioner Phil Stanley blamed a staff shortage for the lack of patrols and cameras in the building trades area that day. ''We bought the equipment in the past year and we were working on getting it installed,'' Stanley said in an interview taped last Thursday and broadcast on WNDS-TV Sunday afternoon. Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons told the New Hampshire Sunday News that instead of hiring an outside contractor to install the surveillance cameras, the prison staff was doing the work to save money. But the building trades area still had not been hooked up, he said. A preliminary investigative report by state Attorney General Peter Heed found that there were no surveillance cameras or motion detectors in the building trades area. The report also found the prison was short three correctional officers who normally patrol the area, a program for medium- and minimum-security inmates that is located outside the prison walls. The building trades program has been shut down temporarily and will be relocated inside the prison, corrections officials said. Only minimum-security inmates will be allowed to take part in the future. Stanley also blamed miscommunication among prison staff members for some of the problems that led to the escape. Two of the inmates were flagged as escape risks, yet they were allowed to take part in the building trades program, he said. Also, the night before the escape, another inmate tipped off corrections officers that a break-out was being planned, and a week before the break-out, a bolt-cutter was found between the two fences. Neither incident was investigated, Heed's report said. ''It definitely was a wake-up call,'' Stanley said. ''Those inmates should not have been in this area.'' The escapees were Christopher McNeil, 35, of Willards, Md., convicted murderer Kevin Gil, 31, of Boston, and Philip Dick, 23, of Hampton. McNeil has pleaded guilty to escape and is cooperating with investigators and with prosecutors in the case against the other two. |
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