6 Felons, Including 3 Killers, Cut Bars to Flee Illinois Prison; 1 Caught

Six convicts, including three murderers, escaped from the maximum-security Joliet Correctional Center early Sunday, apparently by cutting through metal bars, state police said. One was captured later in the day.

The escapees, most in their 20s and all in segregation cells as disciplinary problems, were considered extremely dangerous, authorities said.

Tommy Munoz was captured shortly after 5:30 p.m. at a cousin’s Chicago home by officers who had staked it out, state Department of Corrections spokesman Nic Howell said. Munoz, 22, was serving a sentence for narcotics violations and intimidation.

A search with dogs and an airplane was called off because the escapees apparently split up, state police trooper Thomas Miller said.

The prisoners escaped from the segregation cells, authorities said. Four of the inmates were doubled up in cells and the other two were in cells alone.

Reports of when the prisoners escaped changed over the course of the day. State police originally reported the men were discovered missing at 4:55 a.m., but Howell said later that the discovery was made after a 7 a.m. inmate count came up short.

About 100 corrections officers specially trained to deal with escapes assisted state police and local law enforcement officers in the search.

The inmates had to cut through bars on the cells, break a window, cut through bars outside the window and cross a fence to get away, Howell said.

“Obviously, this is a breach of security,” he said. “They shouldn’t have had the materials to be able to cut with and should not have been able to cut like this without being noticed.”

The prison, which has been plagued by overcrowding in recent years, is one of the state’s four maximum-security facilities and one of two in Joliet.