ad info

 
CNN.comTranscripts
 
Editions | myCNN | Video | Audio | Headline News Brief | Feedback  

 

  Search
 
 

 

TOP STORIES

Bush signs order opening 'faith-based' charity office for business

Rescues continue 4 days after devastating India earthquake

DaimlerChrysler employees join rapidly swelling ranks of laid-off U.S. workers

Disney's GO.com is a goner

(MORE)

MARKETS
4:30pm ET, 4/16
144.70
8257.60
3.71
1394.72
10.90
879.91
 


WORLD

U.S.

POLITICS

LAW

TECHNOLOGY

ENTERTAINMENT

 
TRAVEL

ARTS & STYLE



(MORE HEADLINES)
 
CNN Websites
Networks image


Morning News

Security Lapses Could Have Aided Prison Escape of `Texas Seven'

Aired January 11, 2001 - 11:21 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we go to Austin, Texas where criminal justice officials are evaluating last month's escape by seven inmates at a maximum security state prison. Those men are still at large.

We have our correspondent Tony Clark standing by in Austin.

Tony, good morning, once again.

TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

What the institutional division did is look at what happened on that December 13 escape of seven inmates. Those seven inmates still at large, including two murderers -- convicted murderers; a kidnapper, child abuser, all believed to be very heavily armed.

And what they did, when they looked at what happened, they said in retrospect it looks like the pieces of a puzzle that simply all fit together. They said, contrary to earlier reports, the inmates were not having a picnic or snack in the maintenance office; that they were, in fact, being given extra work to do at that time and that that was not unusual. They often did that.

They were supervised; there was one supervisor there. That supervisor was overpowered and then, as other inmates and maintenance officers and maintenance staff members came back to the maintenance department, they were overpowered -- one by one they were locked up. In some cases their clothes were taken from them. And over a 2 1/2 hour period, this escape unfolded.

There are certain things that they say, in the report, that were obvious mistakes that were made. A coach from the prison went into the maintenance office, saw that there were several inmates there that, at that point, were not supervised. The supervisor, at that point, had been taken hostage. But he didn't report anything to anyone else.

There was a fire alarm that was set off by one of the people who was being held hostage, but that didn't go anywhere. And there was a problem, a lack of following procedures by the corrections officer who was at the guard tower, allowing the inmates and one inmate who was dressed as a civilian access to the guard tower without properly checking to see who that person was. That guard at the guard tower was also overpowered. So, mistakes along the way.

Aubrey Hawkins' (ph) mother -- Aubrey Hawkins, the Irving police officer who was killed in the Christmas Eve robbery at Oshmans Sporting Goods store -- stood before these members of the state corrections, or Criminal Justice Committee. She said that she felt that there wasn't enough blame being put around, that they ought to be very embarrassed by what happened at the prison on December 13.

And one of the inmate -- or one of the maintenance employees who was held hostage for a time was there as well and tried to speak after the meeting. He left in frustration -- after being asked to leave, threw his identification badge at the -- Gary Johnson, who is the head of the institutional division, he also upset with the way things have been portrayed.

So blame to go around; possible dismissals, possible disciplinary action still ahead for prison officials as they look at, not only what happened to prevent that from happening again -- but also look to try to find those seven escapees -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Tony Clark, thanks you very much.

More on the story -- as we continue to talk we're going to be showing you the mug shots -- the updated mug shots that officials released last night.

Once again, these seven men, all considered armed and dangerous, have been on the loose since December 13.

For more on this story, we're going to talk on the phone now with Miles Moffeitt; he's a reporter with "The Fort Worth Star-Telegram" and has been following this story for a while.

Miles, have you had a chance to look at the report that came out today?

MILES MOFFEITT, "FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM": I sure have, and I'm expecting it to be faxed any minute.

KAGAN: So you have had a chance to look at it, or...

MOFFEITT: I have not. I heard portions of the interview with the spokesman.

KAGAN: And just the little bit that you've been able to hear -- what has been added to your coverage today? What kind of caught your attention?

MOFFEITT: Well, gosh, a number of things. I guess it's important that they recognize that the rear guard made a big mistake. And I guess all the questions in the last few days have been surrounding exactly, you know, why he did not identify the inmates who walked up to the tower.

And generally they lower a bucket down so they can throw their I.D. cards in it and then they pull it up to the top of the tower. And apparently, I mean, he didn't even so much as ask them to do that.

KAGAN: I guess what caught my attention, in watching, kind of, the blow-by-blow of how these men did this, that this escape took about 2 1/2 hours. That is a long time for something to go wrong and for these men to be caught.

MOFFEITT: Yes, the whole detail that went into the escape is mind boggling because, apparently, according to the spokesman, one of the other inmates was at the library. And there's just a lot of confusion as to how he got from the law library to the maintenance department if he would have left the law library around 9:30.

So apparently -- I mean, they've acknowledged that there was a staffing shortage, I think you said in the number of more than 20 officers.

KAGAN: Yes, I think about 22 down.

And maybe you can give us some context here: Isn't this just a sign of a bigger problem across the state of Texas with the corrections department and with the prison system?

MOFFEITT: Yes; consistently over the last few years the union has made a, you know, a very loud statement about, you know, we must do something; we must call a special session, we must somehow address the shortage. And it's, like, hovered around 16 percent, I think, in the last few years.

KAGAN: The other part of this story -- of course, there's the escape, and then the other part is the hunt for these fugitives. For somebody outside of Texas it seems incredible that, if you have seven escapees and, as officials have said over and over again, they believe these men are still together, that they haven't been spotted and found.

MOFFEITT: Well, I guess most of the speculation is that they're getting a great deal of help from somebody. And, you know, for them to be out for more than a month and not -- well, understandably there have been all sorts of sightings, or suspicious citings that, you know, one by one they turn out to be false alarms. So you just have to wonder, in order to be so deep underground, who's helping them.

KAGAN: And as these men stay on the run longer and longer, is there a sense a fear that builds around Texas, or are they also kind of getting a celebrity status?

MOFFEITT: Well, that's probably the paradox of the whole thing. I mean, if you're out, the more -- I mean, the longer you're out, the more press coverage you're going to get. And, certainly, in Kennedy (ph) the people are really confused because they -- a lot of the people feel like they should have got more information, you know, from the prison officials in terms of the makeup of the prison. And then some of the city people were concerned they weren't notified soon enough after the escape.

So I think the fear is probably really intense, even around the prison, and also around the state.

KAGAN: Miles Moffeitt with "The Fort Worth Star-Telegram," thanks for giving us some additional information and context on that story that we've followed here for over the last month.

Once again, Miles Moffeitt, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

 Search   


Back to the top