Ten inmates who may have had help from jail workers broke out of a New Orleans jail early Friday, escaping through a cell wall where a toilet had been removed, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
The Louisiana State Police said on Friday that one of the escapees, Kendell Myles, had been arrested in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The Sheriff’s Office warned that the remaining escapees should be considered “armed and dangerous.”
“We have indications that these detainees received assistance from individuals inside of our department,” Sheriff Susan Hutson said on Friday, adding that supervisors and lower-level staff members were working when the inmates escaped from the jail, called the Orleans Parish Justice Center, at around 1 a.m.
Officials said they were investigating multiple security failures. Sheriff Hutson blamed “defective locks” on the cells, which she said she had previously complained about to a judge and to city officials.
Jeworski Mallett, chief of corrections at the Sheriff’s Office, said the inmates escaped from part of the jail where sliding doors can be forced off their tracks, allowing people to enter and exit at will. A toilet in a handicap cell had also been removed, with the bolts taken out, he said.
“We know that this could not be removed from the inside so we are investigating that to see exactly who entered these areas, what kind of work was done, if there was work being done, and if this was an inside job,” he said. Four supervisors and 36 staff members were working at the time, he said.
After escaping behind the cell wall where the toilet had been removed, the inmates were then seen on surveillance video leaving through a door on a loading dock at the jail, scaling a wall and running across an interstate, Sheriff Hutson said.
Officials noticed during a routine head count at 8:30 a.m. on Friday that the detainees were missing, Sheriff Susan Hutson said. She said the office then activated “emergency protocols” and began a search for the inmates.
The Sheriff’s Office previously said 11 inmates had escaped but later corrected the number to 10. It said it had mistakenly listed an inmate as an escapee who was actually still incarcerated.
“We do acknowledge there is no way people can get out of this facility without there being some type of lapse in security,” Sheriff Hutson said. “It’s almost impossible — not completely, but almost impossible — for anybody to get out of this facility without help from the outside.”
The escape led to sharp criticism of the Sheriff’s Office from officials who questioned how 10 inmates had managed to escape and why the office had not immediately notified the public.
“Someone clearly dropped the ball, and there’s no excuse for this,” Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, said in a statement on social media. She called for an investigation to determine what had happened.
“This is beyond unacceptable, and once these offenders are back in custody, there must be real accountability,” she said.
Jason Williams, the Orleans Parish district attorney, said in an interview on WDSU, a local television station, that the escape was “an unprecedented failure.” He expressed frustration that he, the public and the news media had not been notified immediately when the inmates escaped.
He raised the possibility of a grand jury investigation to examine who was involved. He said his office had also contacted witnesses involved in the inmates’ cases to notify them that the men had escaped.
“I’ve got a deep fear right now for people who were brave enough to come forward to testify in these cases,” he said. “This is a very dangerous situation that has only been made more dangerous because of the poor leadership and lack of transparency.”
Maj. Silas Phipps Jr., a leader of the investigative bureau of the Sheriff’s Office, said that officials were “working every angle” to find the inmates.
“I just want to remind the public and anyone that may be assisting them that, if we identify you and can prove that you are assisting them, we will prosecute you along with them to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.
Sheriff Hutson told the New Orleans City Council in October that the Orleans Parish Justice Center had about 1,500 inmates, well above the 1,250-inmate cap set by the council and far more than the 900 inmates her staff could handle, NOLA.com reported last year.
While violent crime in New Orleans was down, Sheriff Hutson said in the article, there had been an influx of people charged solely with misdemeanors such as trespassing, shoplifting and simple assault.
“We still have to hold them,” she told City Council during its annual budget hearing, NOLA.com reported. “It stresses our facilities.”
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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