New Orleans jail slammed by former warden after 4-time escapee breaks out

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Having trouble? Click here. Poor safety protocols allowed a serial escape artist and 9 others to interrupt out of a New Orleans jail, in response to a former federal jail warden.

"To start with, that jail had been deemed a prepare wreck by way of simply primary jail operations," Cameron Lindsay advised Fox Information Digital.

Lindsay labored for 20 years within the federal jail system, seven of them as a warden. He was as soon as the warden of the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He additionally served as a warden at two personal prisons. Now, he's a guide and knowledgeable witness.

"It will seem that primary safety inspections weren't going down on the jail. Inmates ought to by no means be capable to tear a bathroom off of a wall and simply be capable to go proper to the perimeter fence," he stated. "I imply, I simply can't imagine that."

This photograph reveals the outlet left behind by inmates who escaped the Orleans Parish Jail. (Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Workplace)

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In 2013, the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Workplace (OPSO), which runs the Orleans Parish Correctional Facility, entered right into a consent decree with the Division of Justice to maintain the jail operational. The decree stemmed from civil rights abuses, and OPSO agreed to federal authorities oversight and biannual compliance checks.

The newest of these compliance check reports reveals that the jail was absolutely compliant with 42% of the decree's measures and utterly noncompliant with at the least 5% of them. It's partially compliant with about 53% of the measures.

The report, launched in October 2024, paints an image of utterly insufficient inmate supervision, resulting in violence and using illicit medicine, shakedown and extortion schemes, and inmates having limitless time to vogue weapons out of on a regular basis jail objects.

Sheriff Susan Hutson speaks at Metropolis Corridor in New Orleans on Might 20, 2025. (Sophia Germer/Occasions-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate by way of AP)

"There have been vital incidents of violence occurring inside the amenities in the course of the monitoring interval; together with inmate-on-inmate assaults and assaults on workers," in response to the report. "The extent of violence within the facility continued to be at all-time excessive ranges throughout this monitoring interval."

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"The inmates look like emboldened of their refusal to comply with the foundations and obey the orders of the safety workers," the report stated. "Very regarding is that each workers and inmates proceed to relay to the Screens that there are inmates who're performing as ‘tank bosses’ and are extorting different inmates and requiring fee for cover."

Regulation enforcement searches for a fugitive in New Orleans on Might 21, 2025. (Chris Granger/Occasions-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate by way of AP)

There was additionally no jail monitoring system to confirm that safety checks have been going down and being reported at common intervals.

These failures have come into focus because the early morning hours of Might 17, when 10 inmates broke out of the jail and ran amok within the New Orleans space.

As of Friday afternoon, 5 of them remained at giant.

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"Inmate safety checks characterize a important, industry-accepted minimal commonplace," Lindsay advised Fox Information Digital. "Failure to conduct them is a severe menace to the general primary safety of any correctional facility. It speaks to [a] lack of efficient correctional management and presumably an absence of acceptable funding."

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One of many 10 escapees was Antoine Massey, who was being held within the jail on fees of home abuse involving strangulation, theft of a motorized vehicle and a parole violation. He was additionally wished for rape and kidnapping in St. Tammany Parish, according to Fox 8 .

Massey had escaped from custody 3 times since 2007 and was now not eligible to be launched with an digital ankle monitor as a result of he stored slicing them off.

Antoine Massey (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Workplace)

Massey was nonetheless at giant on Friday afternoon.

Linsday stated that from his perspective as a warden, OPSO ought to have taken extraordinary precautions with Massey , realizing that he had such a historical past.

"He can be housed in essentially the most safe location inside the jail," he stated. "All workers can be apprised of this particular person, and given his extremely excessive threat for escape, I might require documented frequent checks at the least as soon as each half-hour on an irregular schedule."

"I might additionally insist on documented correctional supervisor rounds, making certain line workers are strictly following tips for inmates of this caliber who current the best menace to the group," he stated.

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Lindsay was important of the management on the jail.

"I do not know why you'll have 9 high-security-level people in a single cell like that," he stated. "It simply does not sound prefer it's a well-operated correctional facility. It sounds prefer it's a multitude."

The Orleans Parish Jail is seen in New Orleans on Might 16, 2025. (Brett Duke/The Advocate by way of AP)

"And I let you know what, here is one other factor that speaks to me concerning the ineffectiveness of this facility," he stated. "I might let you know that they do not know the very first thing about emergency preparedness, as a result of when you may have an escape, there needs to be a direct response. There needs to be no delay by any means. That data ought to exit to legislation enforcement and thru the group."

The inmates escaped within the early morning hours of Might 16, however jail workers didn't understand they have been lacking till about 8:30 a.m., they stated in a City Council meeting after the escape.

New Orleans Police Division Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was notified of the escape by considered one of her captains, who heard about it within the media.

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"An escape is the quintessential failure in corrections," Lindsay stated.

"It's the quintessential failure as a result of your No. 1 goal is to guard the group after which to guard the workers and to guard the inmates. However your No. 1 goal is to make sure that these inmates are segregated from free society, so you must forestall an escape."