Prison said to know of escape plot

Steps not taken, union in Ohio says; killer, 2 others caught

LIMA, Ohio -- Prison officials were warned about an escape the day before three inmates, including a school shooter who killed three students, scrambled over a fence before being recaptured, the union representing Ohio guards said Friday.

One inmate was put in segregation when an escape plan was discovered Wednesday, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association said in a statement.

That inmate had been housed in the same unit as the three who escaped from the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution in northwestern Ohio the next evening, and prison officials didn't take additional steps to secure the unit, the union said.

A spokesman for the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said in an email that the segregated inmate "has nothing to do with the escape." She didn't address other parts of the union's allegations.

The three escaped prisoners, including convicted Chardon High School gunman T.J. Lane, were recaptured by early Friday.

All three were transferred later Friday to a high-security prison in Youngstown in northeastern Ohio. Criminal and internal investigations were underway to determine what happened, and the prisons agency was bringing in outside experts to examine procedures and recommend possible improvements.

The three prisoners scaled a fence to a roof over an entry building at the minimum- and medium-security prison in Lima at 7:38 p.m., immediately sounding an alarm, the state said.

Lane, 19, was caught about 100 yards from the prison by two state troopers at 1:20 a.m. Friday.

A second prisoner had been caught almost immediately, and troopers apprehended the third three hours after finding Lane.

Lane's brief taste of freedom frightened residents in Chardon, the community nearly 200 miles to the east where Lane fatally shot three students and wounded two others.

School officials canceled classes Friday.

"It's a trigger," district spokesman Ellen Ondrey said of the escape. "It takes everyone back to 2/27 and what was happening that day."

Lane was housed on a "protective control" unit, a higher security setting than the main compound, according to a statement from the legislative prisons oversight committee.

The unit is designed to hold inmates with proven safety threats because of the notoriety of their crimes, testimony they have given or gang threats, the committee said.

An April inspection by the committee noted ongoing security concerns at the unit. Security management "remains a concern, both in terms of how the higher security inmates are handled, as well as discipline for misconduct," according to a May report by the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee.

The state eliminated some security posts at the prison five years ago, according to the union, which also complained about low staffing.

"They just aren't focused on security here like they need to be," Shawn Gruber, a corrections officer there and a union board member, said in the statement.

An investigation is underway to determine how the men, who were outside for recreation, managed to climb over the perimeter fence, Warden Kevin Jones said. Authorities wouldn't say whether the three prisoners planned their escapes together.

Lane was captured near a small church and cemetery that are separated from the prison by an overgrown field and a two-lane road.

Authorities didn't release information about the prisoner who was caught almost immediately.

Authorities confirmed the third prisoner, Clifford Opperud, was taken into custody about 4:20 a.m. Friday, but they didn't immediately release how or where. Opperud was serving time for robbery, burglary and kidnapping.

Lane pleaded guilty last year to aggravated murder charges in the shootings at Chardon High School. Prosecutors said he killed Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, while wounding two others. One of the wounded students is paralyzed.

At his sentencing hearing last year, Lane unbuttoned a dress shirt to reveal a T-shirt scrawled with the word "killer," similar to a shirt he wore during the shootings on Feb. 27, 2012. He cursed and made an obscene gesture as the judge gave him three consecutive life sentences.

Reached Thursday at her home in Chardon, Parmertor's mother, Dina, said she was disgusted that Lane escaped.

"I'm extremely scared and panic stricken," she said. "I can't believe it."

Other residents in Chardon said the escape opened old emotional wounds.

"The hardest thing last night was seeing all the images on TV," Morten Pederson, 42, who has two younger children in the school district, said Friday. "You see the images and start to relive the whole thing."

Police Chief Scott Niehus said the community is still healing.

"With all due respect, this is attention we really don't want," he said.

Information for this article was contributed by Mark Gillispie, Kantele Franko, and Jennifer Smola of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/13/2014

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