4 Officers Fired, 1 Suspended Over Prison Escape : Corrections: Inmate in October incident was caught quickly. New state facility had been criticized for perceived lax security.

Four correctional officers have been fired and a fifth given a 30-day suspension for allowing a convicted murdered to escape from the new state prison in Lancaster last October, interim Warden John Ratelle said Wednesday.

Ratelle said he took action against the officers in late May but did not make it public until a meeting of the prison’s citizens advisory committee.

Committee members said they were pleased to hear about the punishment. The Oct. 6 escape had triggered a citywide outcry concerning security at the prison, which opened in February, 1993.

Inmate Eric Rene Johnson, 23, climbed over an eight-foot block wall and two 12-foot chain-link fences, all topped with razor wire, to make his escape. He was recaptured five hours later outside a convenience market in Lancaster, several miles from the prison.

Prison officials said no officers would be disciplined until an investigation had been completed. As the months went by, some local leaders expressed impatience over the delay.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Ratelle said investigators simply determined that the officers were not paying attention to the prisoner or the fences when Johnson escaped.

“I know exactly how it happened,” the warden said. “The inmate saw an opportunity and took it. He saw the staff was lax. That’s what happened here--a lack of attentiveness.”

Ratelle said he could not identify the disciplined officers because of state privacy laws. The officers had been with the state Department of Corrections for four to seven years.

The officers can appeal their firings to a state board, but they cannot retain their jobs while awaiting the outcome, Ratelle said. He did not know whether any of the officers had filed an appeal.

A sixth officer who also was investigated in connection with the breakout received no punishment.

Johnson’s escape angered many residents because at the time the prison was proposed, many city leaders fought it partly because of security concerns. But state officials insisted that escapes were extremely rare.

The new prison--which houses more than 3,000 maximum- and medium-security prisoners--received a second blow to its reputation in January when another prisoner, serving a life sentence for attempted murder, escaped by hiding inside a garbage truck. He, too, was recaptured, but a month later state officials removed the prison’s first warden, Otis Thurman.

Ratelle, who has been running the prison since then, said the investigation into the second escape is continuing and that no officers have been disciplined yet. But he said the prison has changed its garbage collection procedures to reduce the prospects of another such escape.

The warden also said an electrified fence, now under construction, will make it highly unlikely that another inmate can escape the way Johnson did. The electrified fence, which will carry a potentially lethal charge, is expected to be activated at the Lancaster prison in January.