As the Pennsylvania State Police and other agencies press ahead in their massive search for escaped homicide suspect Michael C. Burham, officials in Warren County said they have ordered changes at the county prison where Burham broke out on July 6 using a rope made of bedsheets.
The county will make repairs to the roof of the exercise yard where Burham started his escape from the Warren County Prison, and the county’s Board of Commissioners and its Prison Board “will have an ongoing review of the policies, staff and structures in the Prison,” the county’s three commissioners said in a statement released to the News on Tuesday night.
“All policies and procedures related to inmate access and observation are being reviewed, and changes will be made to increase security in that space,” the commissioners also said, referring to exercise yard.
The commissioners also said they and the Prison Board are considering working with the Pennsylvania State Department of Corrections “to thoroughly evaluate the facility and its policies to find weaknesses and recommend improvements” to the 139-bed Warren County Prison.
The Department of Corrections already inspects the prison annually, the commissioners said. They said the Warren County district attorney, Rob Greene, recommended the department conduct the added review in light of Burham’s escape.
Though commissioners said they and the Prison Board, which includes the commissioners, will evaluate prison staff in response to the escape, they stopped short of saying whether any staff has or will be disciplined. The commissioners and the board “intend to continue releasing information on future changes and improvements,” according to the statement.
The commissioners said the criminal investigations into the escape have “slowed our ability to provide information or react to policy and facility concerns.”
“Although the Commissioners await the outcome of the criminal investigations for any notice of internal staff issues, the board is confident in the administration and workers and their overall commitment to security,” according to the statement. “Working in the jail is a challenging job. The Commissioners and Prison Board support the Warren County Correction Officers.”
Head of county commissioners said information limited for now
The commissioners said they plan to vote on a contract with the state Department of Corrections at their regular monthly meeting Wednesday at the Warren County Courthouse. The commissioners said they will hold a news conference at the meeting about their plans for the prison, located next to the Warren County Courthouse on Market Street in downtown Warren, about 66 miles southeast of Erie in northwestern Pennsylvania.
News on Monday asked the chairwoman of the Warren County Board of Commissioners, Tricia Durbin, whether the commissioners planned to discipline anyone at the prison and make changes at the facility. Durbin responded on Monday that the Prison Board had met that day, and that a statement would be forthcoming.
In releasing the statement to the Times-News on Tuesday night, Durbin cited the criminal investigation as restricting what the county commissioners can disclose at this point. The city of Warren police are conducting that probe.
“As a result of an ongoing investigation, we are limited in the information we have received, as well as what we are able to share,” Durbin said in an email. “Once the investigation is finished, the prison board will be able to engage in a more public manner as we shape out any need for process improvements or physical plant needs.”
Other members of the Prison Board are Warren County Sheriff Brian Zeybel, county Treasurer Dennis Munksgard and Greene, the district attorney. The two other county commissioners, who are also on the board, are Benjamin Kafferlin and Jeff Eggleston.
The commissioners said in their statement that Greene did not participate in formulating the statement because he is part of the criminal investigation into Burham’s escape.
The warden at the Warren County Prison is Rusty Barr, named to the post in August. He was the deputy warden under the former warden, Jon Collins, who retired.
Exercise yard focus of fixes at Warren County Prison
Burham is wanted in connection with the May 11 fatal shooting of Kala Hodgkin, 34, of Jamestown, in Chautauqua County, New York, north of Warren. Though he has yet to be charged in that case, Burham is a “prime suspect” in the killing, the U.S. Marshals Service said. At the time of Hodgkin’s death, Burham was wanted on a charge that he had raped her, according to court records.
Burham fled the area after Hodgkin’s death. He is accused of kidnapping an elderly couple in Sheffield, in Warren County, on May 20, and stealing their SUV, which he used to drive to South Carolina. He was captured there on May 24 after a multi-agency manhunt. The couple was found unharmed in a cemetery in South Carolina.
Burham was eventually returned to Warren. He was placed in the Warren County Prison on $1 million bond after he was arraigned on the kidnapping charges on June 19.
Burham is from Russell, near Warren, and is still believed to be in the area of Warren County, state police said. Police said searchers are using police dogs, drones and helicopters and that the search had extended into the 514,029-acre Allegheny National Forest, which borders the city of Warren.
Burham is a “self-taught survivalist with military training,” state police said in a news release. “He is to be considered armed and dangerous and we are asking the public not to approach.”
He is accused of escaping the prison by climbing on a pullup exercise machine in the prison exercise yard, getting on to a roof and then sliding off the prison roof with a rope made of bedsheets tied together, as the media has reported. The escape occurred at about 11:20 p.m. on July 6, according to the criminal complaint Warren police filed against Burham in the escape case.
In the statement they released on Tuesday night, the Warren County commissioners said their “review has led to the order of repairs on the roof of the prison yard, which is a 40′ x 40′ room with a cage on the top floor of the jail facility.
“The Commissioners and Prison Board have also ordered the space be augmented with deterrents and safety measures and that the exercise equipment be removed and replaced with equipment that does not provide access to higher positions in the facility.
“The Commissioners expect the immediate structural fixes to be completed before the end of the week.Several longer-term upgrades will begin immediately and be completed in the next few weeks.
“It’s important to understand that the law has changed in the past five years, and prisoners must have access to yard time and outside exercise. With a facility as small as ours that is close to full, inmates must be taken to the yard in shifts. That happens all day and evening to ensure all inmates have appropriate yard time. Therefore, inmates are legally required to access the yard, and it is crucial for the Prison Board to ensure the facility is secure.”
The commissioners also said in the statement: “It’s important to know that the Commissioners and Prison Board support the jail staff who did all they could when the alert of Burham’s escape was made. The Prison Staff has worked tirelessly to collaborate with local and regional law enforcement to assist with all investigations, and they are to be commended for their efforts.”