The Fayette Tribune, Oak Hill, W.Va.

Local News

July 25, 2012

‘Human error’ cited in failed escape

Outer security not breached at Fayette County complex

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

CHARLESTON — In its 17-year existence, no inmate has managed to escape Mount Olive Correctional Complex, and last week’s failed attempt was only the latest in aborted efforts, lawmakers were told Monday.

Three convicts, one of them facing life without mercy, were rounded up within 15 minutes after it was discovered they were in an area beyond their assigned living quarters.

“We’ve had many escape plots, if you will, since Mount Olive opened in 1995,” Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein told the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and Correctional Facility Authority.

Last Tuesday, he said, inmates Keith Lowe, serving a life term for murder in Kanawha County, and Daniel Smith and Steven Wilson, serving lengthy sentences for murder in Mason County, were in an unauthorized section of the state’s maximum security prison for more than an hour.

“Some human error occurred on the corrections staff,” Rubenstein told the legislators.

If disciplinary action is warranted by a State Police inquiry, he said, it will be taken.

At no time was the outer security breached at the Fayette County complex, which covers 83 acres, the commissioner said.

Since the failed attempt occurred about half an hour before midnight, the prison already was in normal lockdown status, he said.

“Two of the three tried to run from the officers,” Rubenstein said.

“In 15 minutes, all three were apprehended and taken to the Quilliams segregation unit for questioning. At no time was there a danger to the community or the area.”

However, the DOC chief said apparently only State Police were notified of the botched escape, not the surrounding area in general.

Rubenstein said it is possible the three were passed over when the routine nightly headcount was taken.

“It’s obvious there was some human error in all of this,” the commissioner said.

Rubenstein made no allusion to it, but in recent interims meetings he often has spoken of staff shortages and a low pay scale that makes it difficult to attract and retain officers.

Rubenstein said it is possible evidence could be turned over to the Fayette County prosecutor.

Sen. Bill Laird, D-Fayette, the committee’s co-chairman, suggested the Legislature might need to examine the statute on prison escapes for a potential revision.

“I can see how prosecution could be problematic since it’s not defined as a separate crime,” he said.

Rubenstein said the prison contains a number of inner fences, and pointed out the outer perimeter contains razor wire at the top and bottom, and is designed to trigger an alarm.

“We’re not seeing any indication of a well thought-out plan to get over the amount of razor wire they would have to get over,” he said.

On crowded conditions, he told another panelist, Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, that the prison population has topped the 7,000-inmate level, and that includes some 1,800 state-sentenced inmates parked in the 10 regional jails.

Rubenstein told the other co-chairman, Delegate Dave Perry, also D-Fayette, the DOC is eyeing the fourth floor of the Jackie Withrow Hospital in Beckley to absorb some of the surplus.

“The fifth and sixth floors are in really in bad shape and would need a lot of work in asbestos and hazardous material removal,” he said.

“The first through the third floors are in as bad shape.”

Acting Regional Jail Director Joe DeLong said the difficulty in holding down overtime and having sufficient officers lies not in actual numbers, but insufficient slots to fill.

“Our problem is simply we do not have enough positions available to fully staff the facilities without working people overtime,” he added.

— E-mail:  mannix@register-herald.com

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