The Associated Press
LA VILLA, Texas- There were too few guards and too many beds at a privately run South Texas jail where six inmates escaped last month, and some of the guards were unlicensed, an emergency state inspection conducted days after the jail break has found.
The inmates from the East Hidalgo Detention Center remained on the run Wednesday. Five are accused of belonging to a drug gang, and the other is a former police officer who was about to stand trial on drug smuggling charges. They are suspected of crossing the border into Mexico, about 20 miles away.
The state report, issued last week, did not say the deficiencies caused the jail break. The company was ordered to take corrective measures by a “reasonable completion date” but was not penalized.
An emergency state inspection conducted eight days after the Sept. 19 escape cited Lafayette, La.-based LCS Corrections Services Inc. for employing too few guards and keeping unlicensed guards on the payroll. It also found that the jail had “insufficient amount of square footage per inmate,” but that finding was based on a count of beds, not inmates.
LCS spokesman Richard Harbison told The Monitor of McAllen that the company has fixed the problems cited in the report.
Records show the jail had problems meeting staffing and security standards before and after LCS took over in November 2001.
A January 2003 inspection cited the jail for not meeting state staffing requirements of one guard per 48 inmates, not having remote-controlled doors or an intercom system, and failing to group county prisoners according to the level of their crime.
A January 2005 review again found too few guards, but no violations were found in January 2006.
Authorities say the inmates escaped after overpowering an 18-year-old guard with a homemade knife and gaining access to several exit doors. The guard has been fired.
So far three people, including a jail worker, a businessman and the wife of one of the escaped inmates, have been arrested on charges they aided in the escape.
Since the escape, LCS has demoted the chief of security at La Villa and given all employees lie detector tests, Harbison said. The company also has installed a new outer fence, a new alarm system and a metal detector that staff must pass through. It is installing new outside lights and cameras.