YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- More details about the escape of six inmates from the state's only private prison were disclosed Friday as the warden showed off new security features at the facility.
The inmates -- including four convicted killers -- escaped from the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on July 25 by cutting through a wire fence with cutters supplied by a prison employee. They were recaptured.
Warden Jimmy Turner took reporters on a two-hour tour of the 411,000-square-foot prison that has new security features added since the escape.
Mr. Turner showed where the prisoners escaped from one of the three recreation yards and described how errors by guards and confusion contributed to the escape.
Mr. Turner said two guards who were to patrol the six-acre recreation area were inside a nearby gymnasium talking with two other guards and could not see all of the recreation area.
"We don't believe they were working together with the inmates," he said. "It appears they just weren't doing their jobs."
Mr. Turner denied reports that the prison workers conducted their own search before calling the police.
He said prison officials mistakenly told police when they called that there was no escape. The escape happened at the beginning of a shift change, making communication difficult, he said.
The inmates cut through two, 15-foot-high fences after apparently finding an eight-foot area where someone could pass without being detected. Mr. Turner said a motion detector damaged by lightning last spring had been reinstalled improperly and inmates learned they would not be spotted by kicking a soccer ball or throwing a baseball into the area.
Authorities didn't immediately learn about the escape because alarms on the perimeter fence didn't sound, he said.
Guards learned about the escape 20 minutes later when an inmate pointed out a 4-foot-high hole in the fence. The guards then called an assistant warden who came out to examine the fence and called police.
"I'm very solidly convinced that the employees are very concerned about what happened at the facility," Mr. Turner said. "They're more aware of their responsibilities now."
Corrections Corporation of America, the prison's operator, ordered security changes immediately after the escape. The Nashville-based company has been under attack since it opened the medium-security prison in May 1997.
Inmates have sued the company, claiming the prison -- which has had at least 13 stabbings and two killings -- is unsafe.
Dozens of Washington, D.C., inmates have been sent from the prison to other company prisons since an Ohio judge ruled that Youngstown could only house medium-security prisoners. Another 201 inmates are to be transferred by Oct. 1.
Most of the security changes will be finished by next week, the warden said. They include additional fences, more razor wire and three guard towers that overlook the three recreation areas. Guards armed with shotguns and pistols will be in the 20-foot-high towers whenever inmates are outside.
Guards also will check the perimeter gate alarms every shift instead of just once a night.
A new security system has been ordered that will film and tape-record guards' radio conversations and their responses to alarms, Mr. Turner said.
