2nd Jailbreak in 4 Days Fuels Safety Concerns

A downtown jailbreak on Tuesday--the second in four days--has prompted Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials to intensify security measures at separate detention facilities pending an investigation of the escapes.

The escapes have heightened concerns about safety among East Los Angeles residents fighting a proposal to expand the county’s Central Jail on Bauchet Street near downtown and a plan to build a $100-million state prison in an area that has 32 elementary schools.

“We’re pressing our luck,” said Father John Moretta of Resurrection Catholic Church in Boyle Heights. “It is a time bomb any time you put dangerous prisoners so close to a community.”

The most recent jailbreak was confirmed at midnight Tuesday when a prisoner turned up missing during a lockdown and head count of the 1,735 inmates at Biscailuz Center on Eastern Avenue in East Los Angeles and the 6,880 inmates housed at the Central Jail, Deputy Bill Wehner said.

William M. Anderson, 25, of Lennox, who was being held on robbery charges and a no-bail parole violation hold, apparently forced a fellow Central Jail inmate to switch identification wristbands with him, Wehner said.

Climbed Fence

“Mr. Anderson was then (erroneously) transferred in that inmate’s place from Central Jail to Biscailuz Center,” Wehner said. “Once he was at Biscailuz, he escaped by climbing over a perimeter fence . . . which was rimmed with razor-wire.”

Anderson was described as black; 5 feet, 8 inches tall; 180 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes, a close-cropped mustache and beard. Authorities said Anderson might be armed.

On Sunday, a prisoner escaped from the Central Jail using a rope fashioned from bedsheets to rappel three stories from the jail roof to the ground. The prisoner, Keith Williams, 28, was captured Tuesday afternoon at the Fox Hills shopping mall in Culver City when a jewelry store employee recognized him from news reports.

Now, “we are intensifying whatever security measures are in place pending an investigation into all security aspects of both escapes,” said Lt. Robert Briggs, who is in charge of County Jail operations.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman said he asked Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday for a formal report on both escapes.

“I’m sure the sheriff is taking all steps to prevent another possibility of escape,” Edelman added.

Such assurances failed to calm the jangled nerves of some people who live and work just east of downtown Los Angeles.

“With these escapes, we can’t let our children play outdoors as freely as we should,” said Mary Lou Trevis, vice principal at San Antonio de Padua Elementary School, which is located three blocks away from the Central Jail. “I don’t feel safe walking down the street’ because I don’t know whether I’ll run into one of these escapees.”

Neighborhood opposition in Chinatown and East Los Angeles has so far managed to help stall a proposal to add 2,400 beds to the Central Jail as part of an effort to alleviate severe overcrowding. The residents contend that their communities are already overloaded with existing or proposed jail facilities.