WHITE CO., Ill. - White County Sheriff Doug Maier has released information on what's being done within his department after the escape of three inmates at the city/county jail this past Saturday.
Maier said his office is conducting a review of the incident where the three - Justin Bray, Zachary Shock and Johnny Tipton - escaped from the White County Jail in Carmi. Bray has been caught, the other two are still at large
Video from the cell area as well as other areas of the jail have been copied and will be reviewed. The Department of Corrections, who oversees all jails in Illinois, also has been contacted to review the matter. The jail was last inspected by DOC on December 2017 and passed that inspection. There have been no changes to the jail cell area since that time.
A metal pipe from the cell was utilized to break a hole in the outside wall. This pipe was part of a privacy curtain that was installed and required by PREA (federally-mandated Prison Rape Elimination Act) early in 2016. PVC pipe could not be for this purpose.
"Our focus now is to locate the two remaining suspects at large," Maier said. "A full review will then be conducted. Any violations of our policy during this time will be dealt with accordingly.
"We have removed our Federal inmates at this time until the outside wall area can be made more secure," Maier said. "When this part of the jail was constructed in 1975, no concrete or rebar was used inside the concrete blocks. We will be looking at ways to remedy this issue."