From the Editor - Prison Legal News

Escapes (cont.)
were living in a 32-bunk dormitory annex
along with 62 other prisoners. Chief Deputy
Wayne Mize blamed overcrowding
and design flaws for the escape from the
jail, which was designed for 197 prisoners
but currently holds 296. The jailer was not
seriously injured. Three of the prisoners
were caught the next day, while the last
escapee was captured on September 14 by
U.S. Marshals and Sheriff’s officers. One
made it as far as Texas.
At around 2:00 a.m. on September 24,
Joe Thomas Baker III, 19, escaped from
the Robertson County Detention Facility
in Tennessee. He sprinted through a door
leading to the outside while guards were
releasing another prisoner. The jailers gave
chase but couldn’t catch him. However, the
following day an informant told authorities
where Baker was staying and he was
taken into custody.
Two convicted murderers from Washington
state, Kollin Folsom, 24, and Roy
Townsend, 37, escaped from the Florence
Correctional Center in Arizona, operated
by Corrections Corp. of America
(CCA), on Sept. 17, 2007. The men, both
serving sentences for murder, attacked
and restrained a guard, then used ladders
to defeat two fences at the CCA-run
facility. Folsom was quickly caught, while
Townsend was found in Spokane, Washington
almost a month later.
In Utah, two prisoners escaped from
the 110-bed Daggett County Jail on September
23, 2007. Danny Martin Gallegos,
49, and Juan Carlos “Blue” Diaz-Arevalo,
27, both state prisoners convicted of murder,
were being housed at the jail. About
a quarter of Utah’s 6,500 prisoners are
currently held in local facilities due to
overcrowding in the state prison system.
Gallegos and Diaz-Arevalo were in a recreation
yard when they managed to sneak
out a door that had been left unlocked so
minimum-security prisoners could attend
religious services.
From the minimum-security section
of the jail they climbed a razor-wire
topped fence to the roof, crossed the roof,
jumped to the ground and attained their
freedom. Their absence wasn’t noticed
until the evening meal, over five hours
later. The deputy sheriff who noticed the
pair were missing was the only one on
duty at the time, and there was only one
deputy on duty when they escaped. Security
cameras that covered the areas the
April 2008
escapees traversed were not functioning;
the Sheriff was attending a conference at
the time.
The two men disappeared into the
“vast rugged” lands north of the jail,
following in the footsteps of an escapee
who, the previous year, trekked all the
way to his hometown in Wyoming before
being caught.
One week after their escape Gallegos
and Diaz-Arevalo were captured. They had
come upon a summer home in the wilderness
and robbed the retired police officer
who lived there. They stole the man’s SUV
and three firearms, leaving him tied up;
however, he was able to free himself about
an hour later and raised the alarm. Gallegos
was shot and wounded by police when he
turned a rifle on them after they spiked the
SUV’s tires. Diaz-Arevalo, though armed
with a pistol, was captured unharmed.
Sheriff’s officials were criticized for
waiting a day to inform the public about
the escape, while they notified local
Mormon church officials immediately.
Further criticism was leveled because the
county used the jail as a cash cow. Daggett
County has only 967 residents, but
maintains a 110-bunk jail. For each state
prisoner housed at the jail the county is
paid $45 per day, or almost $1.3 million
a year.
Also controversial is the persistent
understaffing, poor staff training and
faulty equipment at the jail. On October 3,
the Utah DOC removed 20 prisoners from
the facility, citing concerns that “low-risk”
prisoners were being housed in a building
behind the jail that was not secure. This
could cost the county $320,000 a year.
About 50 state and 25 federal prisoners
remain at the jail. The lone deputy who
was on duty when the escape occurred
resigned on September 28; he claimed to
have been in the bathroom throwing up at
the time of the escape. “Someone goofed
up,” observed state Rep. Curt Oda.
Ohio prisoner Justin M. Cline, 21, was
caught on September 8, 2007 after escaping
from the Southeastern Correctional
Facility near Lancaster the day before. He
jumped a fence, stole an unlocked vehicle
and left the county. The vehicle contained
a .45 handgun and ammunition, which
were recovered by police before Cline was
captured. His cousin was arrested on a
charge of obstructing police business.
Another Ohio prisoner, Wayne Harris,
27, climbed two fences to escape from
the minimum security community-based
River City Correctional Center on Sept.
18
18. He had arrived at the facility only
five days earlier. His short-lived freedom
lasted one hour before the police tracked
him down.
On September 13, Kentucky state
prisoner Larry A. Crump, 23, made an unusual
exit from the Bourbon County Jail.
The 6’ tall, 180-pound escapee managed
to crawl through a mail slot that measured
approximately 15” by 15” with a security
bar in the middle. He wasn’t missed until
15 hours later. He was being held at the
jail pending a court appearance on charges
that included a prior escape, in 2004, from
the Bourbon County Courthouse.
Jun William Vang, 27, serving a
13-year sentence for attempted murder,
was incarcerated at the Lino Lakes state
prison in Minnesota until his escape on
September 8, 2007. He walked away from
a minimum security unit, and was found
and returned to custody a week later. The
public was not notified until 45 hours after
his escape.
The head count at the Lower Buckeye
Jail in Phoenix, Arizona was short
one prisoner on Sept. 6 after Maurice
Desjardis, 18, absconded from the jail’s
food plant. He went to the home of his
15-year-old girlfriend, which was where
police found him early in the morning.
He was recaptured following a 3-hour
standoff; his girlfriend’s mother was arrested
for harboring a fugitive.
Some escapes are extremely shortlived.
When Nathaniel Smith, a 22-year-old
New York prisoner, ran from a work crew
at the NY DOC corrections training
academy on Sept. 7, he was caught in
just 26 minutes. He was serving time at
the Summit Shock Incarceration Corr.
Facility, a boot camp-type program. He
will now likely be placed at a maximum
security prison.
On September 2, 2007, Connecticut
state police were informed that a state
prisoner, Ishmael Mack, 21, had escaped
from the Yale New Haven Hospital, where
he had been taken for treatment. Mack
was wearing a hospital gown when he gave
the guard assigned to watch him the slip.
He was captured at his girlfriend’s house
the same day.
Roger H. Nordling, 54, made his
break from the Geiger Corrections Center
in Spokane, Washington during Bible
study on Sept. 27. He climbed to the roof
of the facility and jumped a fence; a car
was waiting for him.
A prisoner at the Whatcom County,
Washington jail used impersonation to
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