Prosecutor: Lack of supervision allowed jailbreak

Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow released a report Monday that outlines a long list of failures at the Union County Jail, including last month?s escape of two inmates. Romankow says several

News 12 Staff

Jan 29, 2008, 4:44 AM

Updated 5,931 days ago

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Prosecutor: Lack of supervision allowed jailbreak
Union County Prosecutor Theodore Romankow released a report Monday that outlines a long list of failures at the Union County Jail, including last month?s escape of two inmates.
Romankow says several security policies were ignored or not enforced, required head counts were not performed, posters from cells weren?t removed and cells weren?t routinely checked. According to Romankow, no guards actually entered the cell from which the two escapees fled for two and a half weeks. That, according to Romankow, made their escape a lot easier.
Romankow blames a ?failure to supervise? for December?s double jailbreak. According to Romankow, if guards had checked the cells for Otis Blunt and Jose Espinosa, they would have noticed the escape route hidden beneath pictures of pin-up girls.
Three officers and two sergeants are suspended without pay and facing possible dismissal for apparent lapses in supervision.
On Monday, the prosecutor also revealed new details of the escape. He showed what is now believed to be the tool used to scrape away mortar in the cinderblock walls. Investigators also found note tucked inside a Bible in Blunt?s cell. The note complained of poor treatment and taunted the guards for being ?too lazy.?
The pair left another note before their escape. That note thanked a prison guard for the tools they used in their escape. That guard later committed suicide.
Both Blunt and Espinosa were caught in early January. They are both being held at state prison in Trenton. They are due back in court in February.
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