NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) – An Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office staff member has been taken into custody concerning the escape of 10 inmates, as verified by the Attorney General’s office of Louisiana on Tuesday.
Sheriff Susan Hutson suggested that the escape might have been orchestrated internally and mentioned last week that her department had placed three employees on suspension pending an inquiry.
“For someone to escape this facility without assistance is almost impossible, not entirely, but nearly impossible,” she stated about the Orleans Justice Center, a correctional institution housing 1,400 individuals.
The inmates escaped through a hole in a wall behind a toilet in the early hours of Friday while the lone guard watching them went to get food. This guard was not the employee arrested, Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, told the Associated Press in a text message.
Duhe did not provide the name of the person arrested or detail possible charges.
At least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool,” the sheriff’s office stated.
The inmates quickly shed their uniforms and changed into regular clothes.
The absence of the inmates, many charged with or convicted of violent offenses such as murder, was not reported for hours. Four have since been apprehended and six remain at large.
Since the escape, Hutson has pointed to long-standing deficiencies such as faulty locks and staffing shortages. But a growing number of state and local officials have said blame for the escape rests squarely on her for failing her responsibility to keep inmates locked up.
The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to discuss the jail break with the sheriff’s office and other authorities at a Tuesday meeting.
