Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993 TAG: 9307290257
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Sheriff Alvin Hudson said Wednesday that he and city engineers have met to discuss changes to a rooftop recreation area where Monday morning's escape started.
"It's an area that I've never felt entirely comfortable with," Hudson said.
After climbing through a small hole in a metal screen that covers the concrete-walled recreation area, two inmates used a rope made from bed sheets to lower themselves from the top of the five-story jail. They were captured within 10 minutes.
A third escapee turned back after the rope broke, falling and breaking his leg as he tried to climb back into the recreation area.
No one had broken out of the jail since 1979, but the escapees found a weakness that apparently had been overlooked for years: In one corner of the recreation area, someone had used a piece of wire instead of bolts to secure the metal screen roof.
The spot was behind a surveillance camera and thus out of the view of a guard who monitors activity on the roof.
Hudson said a second guard watches the inmates though a window, but the corner in which the escape started is almost impossible to see from that vantage point.
Unseen by either the guard or the camera, the inmates were able to boost themselves 14 feet up to the screen, pull it back about 12 inches, and climb through.
All three inmates - Shawn Perkins, Timothy E. Jackson and Larry C. Robinson - are back in jail facing escape charges.
Although plans are not complete, Hudson said the screen probably will be reinforced, and a second camera will be installed.
Until the improvements are made, no inmates will be allowed on the rooftop for their weekly recreation periods.
by CNB