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Murderer Cavalcante’s high-profile escape from a Pennsylvania prison last month was the fifth in the state this year – which appears to indicate a larger problem with security at its jails, experts warn.
Cavalcante scaled the wall at the Chester County Prison and slipped through razor wire, echoing another prisoner’s earlier escape method from the facility.
Meanwhile, an inmate in Warren County had used a rope of bedsheets to rappel off a building, while two other jailbirds escaped through a hole in the recreation yard at Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility.
Facilities like the Chester County Prison – which, despite its title, is actually a jail – often fall far short of the standards of state and federal-run institutions, Don Hummer, an associate professor of criminal justice told CNN.
“[Prisons] are much more of a rigid, organizational culture in terms of how the facilities are run, [while jails] are different from county to county,” he explained.
“Obviously it’s [too relaxed] if they’ve had five escapes since May. They should not be escaping. There’s definitely some kind of issue that they’re not taking care of,” former San Quentin Prison Deputy Prison Warden Daniel B. Vasquez told The Post.
Before Cavalcante’s escape, the facility’s most high-profile fugitive was Igor Bolte, now 30, who managed to slip away from the facility twice: once for a period of several hours in July 2019, and again this past May, per the New York Times.
Bolte, who is serving time for probation violation, told police after the spring incident he was able to scale the wall in the jail exercise area by crab walking – propping his legs up against one wall and leaning his arms into the other, CNN said, citing court documents.
An investigation will probe whether Bolte, currently serving time for probation violation, knew Cavalcante after he used the same escape tactic, authorities told CNN last week.
In the wake of Bolte’s escape, officials reassured the public they were taking steps to amp up security at the facility.
“We thought we took appropriate measures to … prevent that with the razor wire,” Chester County Prison Acting Warden Howard Holland said during a Sept. 6 news conference.
“Again, the one thing we didn’t take into account was a failure on the human element side, we only focused on the physical infrastructure and not necessarily the human element.”
The so-called “human element” — eluding the tower guard on duty — also played a role in Cavalcante’s escape.
An 18-year corrections veteran who was supposed to be watching out when Cavalcante made off was consequently fired last week, a Chester County spokesperson told The Post.
A few weeks before Bolte’s brief escape, on May 7, two inmates fled a Philadelphia jail and spent almost 24 hours on the lam before staff even realized they were missing.
Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, slipped through a hole in the recreation yard fence at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility around 8 p.m., authorities said.
Officials were not aware of their ploy until 3 p.m. the following day, they later admitted.
“We have protocols in place and those protocols were not followed,” Philadelphia Prisons Department Commissioner Blanche Carney lamented at a presser, at which she noted that the pair’s absence went unnoticed during three head counts after their escape.
Carney blamed the failure on staffing shortages and a struggle to keep up with the increasing jail population.
Carney’s complaint is not uncommon with county jail supervisors, Jordan Hyatt, an associate professor of criminology and justice studies and the director of the Center for Public Policy at Drexel University, told CNN.
“Generally speaking, there are staff shortages throughout many correctional systems, especially at the local level, which limit the ability of institutions to supervise incarcerated populations as they may want to,” he explained.
“We are not fully operational,” Carney told WHYY.
“I do not have the full number of posts [filled].”
Grant, who was in custody on drug and gun-related charges, was captured on May 11, while Hurst – who was being held in connection with four deadly shootings – was finally apprehended on May 17.
In another daring escape on July 6, Warren County inmate Michael Burham made headlines when he shimmied out of the county jail facility using a rope of bedsheets to rappel down the building.
At the time of his escape, Burham, 34, was being held on 26 charges including arson, kidnapping and burglary, while he was also under investigation for the rape and murder of the mother of his child in Jameston, New York, officials said at the time.
Similar to Cavalcante, Burham spent nine days on the run before being sniffed out of a wooded area by a dog – this time, a family pet called Tucket who alerted his owners to the stranger lurking near their yard.
The homeowners, Ron and Cynthia Ecklund, eventually found Burham nearby, and immediately called 911.
Despite the string of high-profile failures, state and local officials appeared to dismiss the public’s concerns at the Wednesday morning press conference on Cavalcante’s release.
“This is how government and law enforcement is supposed to work,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said at the podiumabout the capture of Cavalcante, conveniently dodging questions about whether it would be safer if dangerous and inmates did not escape and arm themselves in the first place.
Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan also beamed and said the area’s “nightmare” was finally over.
“The good guys won,” she exclaimed.
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