Inmate Escape Prompts Scrutiny of El Cajon Jail

Officials at the County Jail in El Cajon took a hard look at their escape prevention procedures Thursday, one day after an inmate being held on multiple felony charges escaped.

Jorge Flores, 20, also known as Jorge Gutierrez, broke through the wall of his cell on the jail’s sixth floor at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, climbed down a rope made of bedsheets and jumped or fell at least two floors to a glass atrium outside the county clerk’s office, said Sheriff’s Lt. Brian Roberts.

From there, he jumped onto a tree from the jail’s southeast side, climbed down and fled on foot. He remained at large Thursday.

Flores, described as a transient from Tijuana, was being held in lieu of $60,000 bail after being charged with two counts each of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and burglary, and single counts of robbery, auto theft and a previous escape, jail officials said.

He was being kept in a disciplinary cell because he managed to free himself from his handcuffs and hide behind a bench in the bus used to transport him to jail, Capt. Ben McLaughlin said.

Before fleeing his cell, Flores knocked his cellmate unconscious with a 1/4-inch steel pipe removed from his bed frame, said Assistant Sheriff Cliff Powell.

The man activated an alarm to notify jail deputies when he regained consciousness. He was examined for minor injuries at a local hospital but released within a couple of hours.

After learning of the escape, El Cajon police officers and a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, canine units and sheriff’s deputies set up a perimeter and searched for Flores but could not find him.

Flores is described as 5-foot-6, 130 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a scar on his nose and left cheek.

“We’re assuming he’s gone on to Mexico, because one other time when he committed some crimes he immediately moved across the border,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Ben McLaughlin.

The jail, which houses 226 inmates and opened eight years ago, has come under heavy criticism because several inmates have escaped or have attempted to escape.

The wall Flores broke through consists of one layer each of gypsum board, steel wire mesh and plastic foam, Powell said.

“In 1990, we had five people escape the facility in three separate incidents,” said Glenn Revell, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman. “All of those inmates have been returned to custody.”

Although Flores was seen in his cell 30 minutes earlier, it takes considerably less time to penetrate the wall, McLaughlin said.

“Inmates tell me that, in less than five minutes, they can have a complete hole,” he said. “The last three inmates (who attempted escapes) told me that, within five minutes, they were through the wall and on the roof of the garage four floors below.”

“There’s nothing to keep them from kicking a hole in the wall,” McLaughlin added. He said the jail has received cameras and lights to aid in escape prevention, but “the cameras don’t work and the lights are not bright enough to light the outside of the walls, so they’re worthless.”

McLaughlin said new cameras are due soon.

“Given the present cameras, we can’t see anything at night,” he said. In addition, he said, the jail has only two monitors to watch all four sides of the jail.