Inmate’s Escape Prompts Review of Jail Security

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which continued its frustrating search for escaped inmate Kevin Jerome Pullum on Thursday, is examining its jail operations amid questions about its management abilities.

Pullum’s brazen escape from the downtown Twin Towers jail July 6 has raised new concerns about the department, which has faced festering problems in its custody division for years.

“In terms of the nuts and bolts of running the department, managing risk, tightening systems, as I have reported in the past, I have concerns that’s not happening,” said Merrick Bobb, a private attorney who monitors the Sheriff’s Department for the county Board of Supervisors. “As I have reported, the [custody] system was, and probably still is, shockingly antiquated.”

Sheriff Lee Baca said Thursday that he is focusing on streamlining jail operations in the wake of Pullum’s escape. But Baca added in an interview that he believes there are some misconceptions about his management of the department.

“Let’s focus on improving things and let’s focus on capturing the escapee,” Baca said. “We’re not as simple and stupid as we might appear.”

Pullum walked out of Twin Towers jail on a Friday, hours after being convicted of attempted murder in a Van Nuys courtroom. He is a third-striker and faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors on Thursday issued a bench warrant for the fugitive, who had been due in a Van Nuys courtroom for a morning sentencing hearing.

Pullum apparently dumped his jail uniform in an unguarded jail tunnel. Wearing street clothes and apparently carrying a photo of actor Eddie Murphy on a fake employee identification card, he casually walked out of a jail employee entrance. His girlfriend says he spent that weekend with her a few blocks away in downtown Los Angeles. Sheriff’s officials did not publicly announce the escape until the next Monday and the girlfriend says that without that knowledge, she had no idea he had fled custody.

Sheriff’s officials believe Pullum is hiding in the Hawthorne area but they are scouting 48 different locations of his friends, relatives and other associates.

“I can’t think of the last time we’ve put so many resources into an investigation,” said Capt. Bob Malone, who is overseeing the search. “Everything else has been set aside.”

Internally, the department’s review is focusing on jail staffing and procedures in its custody, court services and transportation divisions.

Several department observers and critics predicted that the department review will reveal serious lapses and archaic systems for dealing with the nearly 19,000 inmates housed in the county jail system, the largest in the nation.

Some say Baca, who was elected in 1998 and plans to run for reelection next year, has focused on rehabilitation and other new efforts and less on improving the basic duties of the Sheriff’s Department.

Bobb, a nationally recognized police reform expert who has written extensively about the county jail system for the supervisors, said Pullum’s escape reveals several potentially troubling breakdowns in the department. Among them, he said, is the Sheriff’s Department’s seeming inability to adequately keep track of inmates.

A History of Problems

According to the department’s records, deputies conducted six searches of the Men’s Central Jail and seven inmate wristband counts before finally announcing on Monday, July 9, that Pullum had escaped the previous Friday night.

“This is the sheriff’s basic job,” said Bobb, who began monitoring the department years before Baca became sheriff. “It’s like doing inventory at the grocery store. This [the inmates] is the inventory.”

The Sheriff’s Department has come under scrutiny in the past for erroneously releasing inmates, detaining them past their release dates and allowing others to leave custody earlier than they should have.

In the wake of Pullum’s escape, officials said they will examine several key areas of concern.

“We’re doing a comprehensive review,” said Chief Taylor Moorehead, who oversees the custody division. “Why it happened, how it happened, what we can do to preclude it from happening again.”

Some Changes Are Already Implemented

Already, officials say, changes are underway:

* The tunnel where Pullum apparently dumped his jail uniform before escaping in his street clothes is now guarded from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m.

* A new employee pass system will be in place next week at Twin Towers, where Pullum apparently walked out with a picture of actor Murphy from “Dr. Dolittle 2” on a fake badge.

* Deputies who deal with inmates returning from court are conducting more searches of those inmates, said Capt. Richard Barrantes, who oversees the downtown Inmate Reception Center.

* Mirrors will be installed near the main entrance of Twin Towers so deputies will be able to view employees from head to toe. Deputies failed to notice that Pullum was wearing his black, jail-issued slip-on tennis shoes when he walked out the door.

Sheriff’s Capt. John Franklin, who oversees the Twin Towers jail, said he has attended several briefings with his deputies this week to discuss security procedures.

“You don’t want that lackadaisical attitude,” Franklin said. “This is not a hotel. This is a jail and we have to keep thinking that way.”