JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
A massive search is still underway in New Orleans for seven of the 10 inmates who escaped from the city's largest jail. Of the 10 men who escaped in the early hours of Friday morning, three have been apprehended. Authorities are now investigating the incident as a possible inside job. Matt Bloom with member station WWNO has been following the latest. Hi, Matt.
MATT BLOOM, BYLINE: Hey there.
SUMMERS: Matt, just start by telling us, what does the response look like now?
BLOOM: Well, you've got a major law enforcement presence here. The FBI, U.S. Marshals and state police got involved over the weekend. They've got drones and helicopters in the air. They've used facial recognition cameras to find and arrest three of the escapees already, as you mentioned. And last night, the FBI and other agencies increased the reward for information to $20,000 for each of the remaining seven that are still out. We're all being told that they're armed and dangerous, and we're getting text alerts each time they capture another inmate. So as you can imagine, this is the talk of the town. People are going on with their lives. There's festivals. It's graduation season. Like, Tulane University just had theirs. So life is still going on.
SUMMERS: What can you tell us, if anything, about the inmates who escaped and also about how they escaped?
BLOOM: Well, they're all men ranging in age from 19 to 42. They were in jail awaiting trial on a variety of charges, including aggravated assault, domestic abuse, battery and murder. As far as how these 10 men got out, video shows them break open a cell door and remove a toilet from the wall. They then fit through a hole behind that toilet, climb over some fencing and run across an interstate. Now, there's still a lot of unanswered questions about how they were able to do all of that. They even had time to stop and write a note over the hole in the wall saying, quote, "too easy." Our sheriff, Susan Hutson, says that they likely had help.
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SUSAN HUTSON: We have indication that these detainees received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department, and the escape was discovered during a routine head count at 8:30 a.m.
BLOOM: She's now investigating at least three of her own deputies for potential involvement. And as one deputy noted in a press conference, you would need power tools to loosen the toilet from a cell wall.
SUMMERS: I understand that this prison was understaffed. What are officials saying about that?
BLOOM: Absolutely. Sheriff Hutson says staffing is around 60% of what it should be, so super low. It took her staff over eight hours to discover the jailbreak and notify the public, but she says it's not new that they're underfunded.
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HUTSON: I have been actively advocating since I got into office for more money to fix these broken - the broken parts of the jail than - that make it unsecure.
BLOOM: As you can imagine, she's now getting a lot of the blame, though, for moving too slow on some of these improvements she's talking about, even though we do have plans for a new jail here.
SUMMERS: And this is not the first time New Orleans has had inmates escape, is that right?
BLOOM: Correct. We've had some smaller escapes back in 2009 and 2020, but nothing this large in recent history. Our district attorney says he's concerned about the safety of himself and prosecutors. At the state level, our Republican legislature has already introduced a bill that would require faster notification to the public of inmate escapes. And our Republican governor, Jeff Landry, says he's ordered a full audit of the Orleans Parish jail.
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JEFF LANDRY: The public deserves to know who, what and how this happened.
BLOOM: He's also using this as another opportunity to criticize the Democratic leadership in New Orleans as...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BLOOM: ...Being too soft on crime. Since taking office, he's increased state police presence in New Orleans, especially, if you remember, since the truck attack on Bourbon Street on New Year's Day.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BLOOM: And he says, after this latest breach, that more state interference is needed.
SUMMERS: Matt Bloom with member station WWNO in New Orleans. Thanks.
BLOOM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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