Hard-Core Convicts’ Escape an Eye-Opener : Castaic Grows Jittery at Inmates’ Nearness

A week after seven prisoners, including a murderer, escaped from the maximum-security section of a county honor ranch in Castaic, many area residents and merchants said Wednesday that they had not been aware that the facility housed hard-core criminals.

Their fears continue to grow as one fugitive, a man with a 25-year record of rapes, burglaries and robberies, remains at large after the March 6 jailbreak.

“It’s not a comforting feeling,” said Bouquet Canyon resident Pat Jackson. “I’m very upset about it. The honor rancho was not meant to have murderers there.”

Neighbor Burglarized

Jackson lives next door to the home that escapee Arvey B. Carroll, 26, is suspected of having burglarized to steal civilian clothing and a knife. Carroll, convicted of two murders and charged in a third, was recaptured at the Greyhound Bus Terminal in downtown Los Angeles last Thursday night, within 24 hours of the mass escape. Carroll was wearing the stolen clothes and carrying the knife, sheriff’s deputies said.

Five other escapees, still wearing their blue jail uniforms, were recaptured at three separate spots within a four-mile radius of the Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho. They were awaiting trial on charges ranging from parole violation to armed robbery.

The seventh, Terrence Lee Liddell, 41, of Reseda, who has spent most of his adult life in state prisons, continued to elude authorities Wednesday. State records show that Liddell has been convicted seven times in 25 years for sex offenses, burglary, robbery and a previous escape attempt. At the time of his escape from the honor ranch, Liddell was awaiting trial on charges of burglary and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit rape.

Judging by the facility’s name, some Santa Clarita Valley residents said they were surprised to learn that prisoners with a history of such serious crimes were housed at the honor ranch. Some said they thought the ranch was merely a work farm for prisoners accused of or convicted on minor offenses--as it was intended to be when built in 1937.

Jail’s Growth Forced Changes

But, because of the growth of the Men’s Central Jail population, the county has had to parcel out felony suspects and convicts to auxiliary facilities with maximum-security sections, such as the ranch, according to Chief James Painter, who is in charge of the Sheriff’s Department’s Custody Division. Besides the jail and the honor ranch, the only other county-run maximum-security facility is at the Hall of Justice in downtown Los Angeles.

Painter said that, although he has heard from many residents who said they did not know that the honor ranch accepted violent offenders, the ranch has had a maximum-security section for 20 years.

But one woman who lives a block from where one escapee was recaptured said, “They call it an honor ranch, so I thought it was just a detention facility.”

The escape of the seven men occurred nearly two years after the escape of Kevin Cooper from the California Institution for Men in Chino. Cooper, a felon who was mistakenly being held in a minimum-security wing of the prison, killed four Chino Hills residents before he was recaptured. He was convicted on Feb. 19 of the murders.

The Castaic honor ranch was built to house 600 inmates convicted of minor offenses who worked off their sentences by farming and providing services in the facility’s bakery and laundry, Painter said.

But, after a series of expansions, the ranch population has grown to include 1,489 prisoners in maximum security, 1,183 in medium security and 1,678 in minimum security, Painter said. Of the maximum-security inmates, Painter said, 837 are awaiting trial or sentencing and 652 have been convicted and are serving out their sentences there.

“A lot of people were rather surprised to learn there were maximum-security prisoners up there,” said Anita Herrick, a secretary at Emblem Elementary School in Valencia, near where one escapee was recaptured. “A lot of people were very upset that a murderer was up there. It’s kind of scary.”

One such resident was Connie Bishop, a 16-year Valencia resident and the president of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Escapees Become ‘Desperate’

“It really concerns me, especially when they escape,” Bishop said. “Once they’re out, they become very desperate, and I think they could kill someone. Two were caught very close to the bank where I work.”

Painter said the residents’ surprise means “we’re doing our job and there haven’t been problems.” He said that the only previous escape from the maximum-security section of the honor ranch occurred in 1977, when four prisoners fled and were recaptured within a few hours.

“We’ve had other attempts,” Painter said. “You always have attempts. That’s what prisoners do.”