Inmate still on loose after escaping from dormitory jail

August 05. 2011 9:34AM


An inmate awaiting deportation at the dorm-style jail off Dunbar Rd. has escaped and remained on the lam this morning.
Monroe County Sheriff Tilman Crutchfield said the inmate, a 21-year-old Mexican man, has no criminal record or history and is not considered a danger to the public.

The sheriff said the inmate was wearing an orange-and-white striped jumpsuit, typically worn by immigration inmates awaiting deportation. The man escaped between 5:45 and 6 p.m. Thursday.

The prisoner is the property of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and was being housed at the Quonset huts near LaPlaisance Rd in Monroe Township. The federal agency has a contract with the county to house such inmates for court hearings or until they are deported.

Sheriff Crutchfield would not disclose how the inmate escaped. All he would release is that the prisoner was athletic and he used those skills to his advantage.

“He had natural, unique athletic abilities and he was able to escape,â€