Three Inmates Escape Miller County Jail
Last updated Monday, April 28, 2008 7:22 PM CDT in News
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEXARKANA -- Three Miller County prisoners escaped from jail early Sunday morning after removing bars and glass from a window at the lockup, sheriff's deputies said.
James Donald Williams, 23, of Texarkana, Demarcus Lamar Cooks, 38, of Texarkana, and Randall Lee Plattner, 23, of Hooks, Texas, were not accounted for at a head count just before 7 a.m. Police arrested Plattner on Sunday afternoon at a friend's home.
Deputies said they had not found Cooks and Williams as of Monday morning.
Williams was being held on a charge of felony failure to register as a sex offender. Cooks was being held on two felony charges, commercial burglary and theft of property.
All three of the escapees were described by the warden as "skinny" as they had to squeeze through a tight window space.
"They didn't seem to be (part of a clique). This was more of an escape of opportunity," Warden Janice Nicholson told the Texarkana Gazette.
Maintenance officials said the bars were completely removed from the window. Welders were called out Sunday to repair the bars.
Sunday's escape is the latest problem at the Miller County jail. Sheriff Linda Rambo was chastised following a Feb. 18 escape of two other prisoners through a patched roof hole for not alerting the public of the escape expeditiously.
In some parts of the jail, Plexiglas walls are all that separate the incarcerated from common hallways. Much of it has had to be replaced or repaired because inmates have shattered it. Door hinges can be taken apart -- meaning inmates can disassemble the hinges and simply walk into restricted areas.
In one area of the jail, cells with walls made of sheet metal can be dismantled if an inmate manages to smuggle a screwdriver inside.
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