BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) 鈥 Just days before 10 men broke out of a New Orleans jail, officials with the sheriff's office asked for money to fix faulty locks and cell doors deemed a key factor in the escape.
As the manhunt for the remaining stretches into a new week, officials continue to investigate who or what was to blame in a jailbreak that even the escapees labeled as 鈥渆asy鈥 鈥 in a message scrawled on a wall above the narrow hole they squeezed through.
Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson said she has long raised concerns about the jail's ongoing 鈥渄eficiencies," adding that the breakout has 鈥渙nce again highlighted the critical need for repairs and upgrades鈥 to the ailing infrastructure.
The men yanked open a cell door, slipped through a hole behind a toilet, scaled a barbed wire fence and fled from the jail early Friday, recorded surveillance video showed.
Four days earlier, Jeworski 鈥淛ay鈥 Mallet 鈥 the Chief of Corrections for the Orleans Justice Center 鈥 presented a need for a new lock system during the city's Capital Improvement Plan hearing.
Mallet said the current system at the jail, which houses around 1,400 people, was built for a 鈥渕inimum custody type of inmate."
But he classified many at the jail as 鈥渉igh security鈥 inmates who are awaiting trials for violent offenses, including charges such as murder, assault and rape. He said many require a 鈥渞estrictive housing environment that did not exist" at the jail and, as a result, the sheriff's office has transferred dozens in custody to more secure locations.
Mallet went on to say that some of the cell unit doors and locks have been 鈥渕anipulated" to the point that not only are they not secure, but some can't even be closed properly.
Hutson said the men 鈥測anked鈥 on a locked cell door 鈥渢o pull it off its track.鈥 They then squeezed through a hole behind a toilet, exited a loading dock door before climbing a barbed-wire fence using blankets and running across a nearby interstate in early morning darkness.
鈥淭hese are the cells that we keep saying we need to replace at great cost in this facility,鈥 Hutson said.
Since becoming sheriff in 2022, Hutson said she has complained about the locks at every turn and advocated for additional funding to make the facility more secure.
"I wrote a letter to the consent decree judge, to the city council, and everybody else who would listen, and every time I go to budget, I say the exact same thing,鈥 Hutson said.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said during a news conference on Sunday that funding for the jail has been 鈥渁 priority鈥 and that funding has been allocated to the sheriff's office for operating expenses and capital improvements. Bianka Brown, the chief financial officer for the sheriff's office, said the current budget 鈥渄oesn't support what we need鈥 to ensure critical fixes and upgrades.
鈥淭hings are being deprived," Brown said of the jail, which for more than a decade has been subject to federal monitoring and a consent decree intended to improve conditions. The jail, which opened in 2015, replaced another facility that had its own history of escapes and violence.
While Hutson said the locks played a key role in the escape, there are other crucial elements that officials have outlined; Indications that the escape may have been an inside job, with three sheriff鈥檚 employees now on suspension; the hole that officials said may have been formed using power tools; a lack of monitoring of the cell pod, as the employee tasked with the job had stepped out to grab food; and law enforcement not being aware of the escape until a morning headcount seven hours after the men fled.
Other's have pointed to Hutson being at fault. State Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, who represents much of uptown New Orleans, called for sheriff to step down on Monday.
鈥淩ather than take accountability, she鈥檚 pointed fingers elsewhere,鈥 Freeman wrote in a statement. 鈥淏laming funding is a deflection--not an excuse.鈥
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently announced the state is launching an investigation into who is responsible in the escape. He also directed the state鈥檚 Department of Corrections to conduct an audit of the jail鈥檚 compliance with basic correctional standards.
鈥淣ow there is no excuse for the escape of these violent offenders,鈥 said Landry, a tough-on-crime Republican.
The governor also requested an inventory of pre-trial detainees or those awaiting sentencing in violent cases at the facility, to consider moving them into state custody.
Three of the seven inmates still at large late Monday were convicted of or are facing second-degree murder charges, authorities said.
