Those who run the Allen Parish Detention Center in Oberlin now know how two detainees managed to escape. About eight Monday night, during outdoor recreation time, Sheriff Doug Hebert says the two scaled the fence– despite the razor wire.

“They had just finished their rec time when they go out into the yard and can do whatever exercise and play soccer or whatever and it was when they were headed back into the dorm, that the two lagged behind and ended up going over the fence,” he said.

Hebert says they have and will add more razor wire and are making other changes to prevent it from happening again.

“It’s inexcusable in my eyes that they escaped at all. While we have tried to plan for every eventuality, we’re dealing with folks that have nothing but time and hours to analyze every little part of how we do business. And it is apparent that they managed to find a small gap in our protocols, which have been rectified already,” he said.

At first, after the escape, the department’s web site made reference to “growing pains,” but Hebert says that was done by an employee and was inappropriate.

“It was an attempt at probably trying to sugarcoat the truth and which is never a good idea with the public and I’ve talked to him since then to assure that we put out facts, not things to make it seem less bad,” he said.

In addition to the razor wire, Hebert says they are modifying policies, modifying how they move inmates from the dorms to the rec yards. He says they are changing (detainee) counting procedures and increasing how often they count the population. He says they are also reinforcing the fences and the structure.