Report: Lax security helped AZ sex offender escape
By BOB CHRISTIE Associated Press Writer
Posted: 12/24/2009 10:58:22 AM PST
Updated: 12/24/2009 05:14:04 PM PST

PHOENIX—Lax security and poorly built exercise-yard fencing were factors in the October escape of a sex offender from the Arizona state mental hospital, according to a report released Thursday by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The report detailed several problems with how staff supervised patients in the hospital's unit for violent sex offenders. They include allowing patients to be in an exercise yard without a staff member watching them and not doing regular perimeter checks. Hospital employees also failed to immediately notify Phoenix police of the escape and activate the hospital's incident management plan, and they were unable to print a photo of the escapee.

Repeat sex offender Jorge Murillo, 40, climbed two razor-topped fences to escape the yard on the night of Oct. 17. He had been sent to the hospital just six days earlier for an evaluation to see if he might be committed to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent person after completing a 10-year prison sentence for sexual assault.

He was recaptured Oct. 23 by the U.S. Border Patrol in California's Imperial County.

Murillo was set to serve a 16-year prison term in California for Los Angeles County convictions for rape and attempted sodomy, but was sent to the Arizona state-run hospital for an evaluation anyway. The report noted that state law requires an evaluation, but Health Services has now asked Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard to review if that law applies when another jurisdiction is asking for custody. Murillo, a Honduran citizen, also had an immigration hold.

"The bottom line is, it is inexcusable to get him and own him for six days and then lose him," said Health Services Director Will Humble. "The guy figures out the problems with our security in six days. Obviously we've got some problems out there if it only took six days."

Humble said no employees were fired because of the escape, but he declined to say if any were disciplined, citing personnel privacy.

Once recaptured, Murillo was turned over to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Oct. 27 to serve his term on the Los Angeles County convictions. The California agency said this month that Murillo was at the Richard J. Donavan Reception Center near San Diego.

Murillo served a prison term in California in the mid-1990s on a drug conviction.

Humble had promised a thorough investigation into Murillo's escape. The report released Thursday includes a facilities assessment by the Arizona Department of Corrections, which recommends numerous security steps, from moving picnic tables away from fences because they could be upended and used to climb, to adding no-climb fabric to fencing not protected by razor wire.

The report noted that improvements to fencing, perimeter security and video cameras were under way and that the exercise yard has been closed until they are done. Inmate labor is being used to do many of the upgrades the DOC recommended. Humble said the total cost will be just above $200,000.

Also, managers are now working nights and weekends to make sure overnight staff is following policies. Security staff is doing regular checks around the south Phoenix facility, and sergeants and lieutenants are working nights and weekends.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_14064922