While it urged the county officials to push forward a new jail scheme, Jason Patrick Tope’s escape also prompted immediate action to enhance the security of the existing jail.

Wednesday, February 13, 2002

While it urged the county officials to push forward a new jail scheme, Jason Patrick Tope’s escape also prompted immediate action to enhance the security of the existing jail.

The county decided to reinforce the jail’s windows by adding security bars Tuesday. The installation will start as early as this week, according to Sheriff Don Nolander.

There are 21 narrow and five wider windows within the secured area in the jail.

Three-quarter-inch square rods will vertically cage the windows at about four-inch intervals. And two more bars for each window will be placed horizontally.

&uot;To escape, you have to be very skinny or cut the bars. That is virtually impossible,&uot; Nolander said.

No escape was supposed to be possible from the beginning when the jail was built in 1974.

Each window, consisting of two panes, was made of a three-quarter-inch thick intensified glass material called Lexon.

The previous jail break in July 2000 was from a wider window, about two feet wide, in a minimum-security area.

According to Nolander, the particular window had a little slack between the pane and frame, which made it possible to pry open.

The county replaced the window and checked others to make sure there were no other deficiencies. Placing bars on the windows was not an option at that time. All the windows in the cells are narrow ones that are only 9.5 inch wide, and escaping from there was considered impossible.

Jailers still wonder how Tope made the escape through such a narrow window in a short time.

The pane he removed was about seven feet above the floor. Tope used his crutch to pry it open, threw out a rope made of a sheets and blankets, and then got himself through the window. Everything was accomplished within 10 to 15 minutes after a jailer made a round a round 1:25 a.m.

Tope tied one end of the rope to holes on his bunk. To climb up to the window, he apparently used a built-in table placed about three feet away from the outer wall.

A new jail in a proposed judicial center will have a second wall outside the cell wall in higher security zones. Windows in the cells and the outer wall are placed asymmetrically, so that inmates do not have a direct view outside yet receive enough light, according to the architects.

Utility lines will run in the space between the inner and outer wall. Most of the maintenance work for the cells can be done there without going into the secured zones.