Escape Attempt Thwarted at Washington State Penitentiary

[Greg]

Escape attempt thwarted at Washington State prison | Seattle Times

By The Associated Press

WALLA WALLA — An escape attempt at the Washington State Penitentiary ended when a guard fired a warning shot into the air.

A prison spokeswoman says 29-year-old Wesley Leuthvilay climbed an inner fence during the noon meal Sunday and ran toward the main wall.

A tower officer fired a warning shot into the air, which caused the prisoner to stop running. He was taken to a segregation unit.

Prison spokeswoman Debbie Tracy says it was the first escape attempt at the prison since 1998.

She says the inmate has been at the prison since mid-August, serving a seven-year sentence out of King County. State records show he was convicted in June of assault.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

[Bobshouse]

Great job, to bad a follow up shot wasn't needed...

When will the media give us our due? They keep refering to us as "guards" and it irks the hell outta me. We do not "guard" anything.

[robeans]

If he would have done this exact same thing when it was dark we would have had an escape. He found a HUGE vulnerability in our armor.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by robeans

If he would have done this exact same thing when it was dark we would have had an escape. He found a HUGE vulnerability in our armor.

I would bet the vulnerability has already been identified by blue-shirts and ignored by management. That's the way it usually seems to work...don't listen to your custody staff about potential vulnerabilities, but only fix things after an incident.

Management's favorite refrain is, "But nothing has happened yet!"

[robeans]

The following day I was in the locker room when the Capt's were getting dressed and I heard one say to another "We knew that was going to happen".

WHHHHHAAAAT?

[Greg]

Originally Posted by robeans

The following day I was in the locker room when the Capt's were getting dressed and I heard one say to another "We knew that was going to happen".

WHHHHHAAAAT?

Failure to do something about deficiencies almost ALWAYS boils down to money. Management is often reluctant to do something about a problem/vulnerability that has never been exploited.

After we had two convicts escape from CBCC in 1999 (between two towers that were unmanned to save money), there were so many deficiencies that suddenly became important to correct. They were almost all things that the blue-shirts had identified as problems, but nobody would do anything about them before the escape.

It's sad and pathetic that it takes a convict to make believers out of management--merely having staff identify a problem is seldom enough.