Details emerge on jailbreak
The two inmates who escaped the Hamilton County Jail in the middle of the night Monday used a piece of the building as a tool to pry open a window, then used tied-together bed sheets to descend to the ground and flee, Sheriff Jim Hammond said Tuesday.
The two men timed their escape between the guards’ twice hourly rounds, according to the sheriff’s office. The correctional officers are required to conduct checks twice an hour at random intervals, with the checks no more than 40 minutes apart.
Hammond said it appears the two correctional officers assigned to the second floor did follow policy during the escape, although their actions are still under investigation.
About 36 inmates had access to the open window before the escape was discovered.
Investigators are still working to nail down the exact timeline of events, Hammond said.
Some of the other prisoners in the cell must have known the men were escaping, he said. Officials declined to describe exactly what the men used to break the window, except to say it was a handmade tool fashioned from a part of the building.
“Again, we go back to how old that building is and what kind of shape it’s in,” Hammond said.
Hammond said officials will take a look at what can be done to discourage future escapes. The jail staff is unable to retrofit all of the jail’s windows to prevent a similar escape, Hammond said, but he may increase the frequency of window inspections.
“We will try to do a better job of checking those windows,” Hammond said.
He added that the jail’s higher-security floors don’t have windows in cells.
The jail also may install additional surveillance cameras, Hammond said. Although there are about 134 cameras in the jail that are now monitored 24 hours a day, the spot where the escape happened was not clearly captured on video.
Exactly what changes are made largely will depend on what the investigation into the escape uncovers, sheriff’s spokesman Matt Lea said.
The compromised cell has been emptied pending repairs, and about 36 inmates who were housed there have been temporarily moved into a retrofitted indoor recreation area, Chief of Corrections Joe Fowler said.
At the time of the escape, the jail housed 642 inmates — a significantly higher number than the jail’s maximum rated capacity of 505 inmates.
The jail is chronically overcrowded and understaffed. As recently as 2013, a study warned that the jail’s windows couldn’t be secured and needed to be replaced. In 2015, the jail failed to meet state standards because of understaffing and overcrowding.
There were two guards working the second floor during the escape — which is normal — but Hammond said four officers are needed to “do it right.”
He emphasized the men who escaped are not considered a threat to the public. One man was recaptured about a mile away in North Chattanooga a few hours after the escape. Hammond declined to say how authorities found that man.
The other escapee, 25-year-old Dustin Adams, is still on the loose.
“These are low-risk prisoners, there’s very little chance that anybody would have been harmed,” Hammond said. “As always, be careful where you are and who you are with. If you see people in prison uniforms or barefooted, running at 1 in the morning, notify the nearest law enforcement.”
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