Escape prompts outside review of Estelle Unit
AUSTIN, TX
Monte S. Henson, lieutenant of correctional officers at the
Estelle Unit near Huntsville, was let go Friday for failure to
follow policy and procedures, said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman
for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Henson was the supervisor in charge of restraining sex offender
/*Arcade Joseph
Comeaux */ Jr., as he was removed from his cell to be
transferred to a Beaumont prison, she said. Armed with a smuggled
pistol, Comeaux overpowered the guards while en route.
He was captured Monday in Houston, after a week on the run.
Henson is the second guard to be fired over the incident. Two
transportation officers, Lance Waldo and Matthew Smith, retired
Friday rather than face disciplinary action, Lyons said.
Ken McGinnis, former director of the Michigan and Illinois
departments of corrections, will oversee the independent security
review, said Brad Livingston, executive director of the Texas
prison system. The review team should be at the prison next week,
he said.
"We must learn from these mistakes on a systemwide basis," he
said. "We're also conducting a systemic review of transportation
policies and procedures including inspection of all transportation
vehicles for potential security enhancement.
"In the future there will be more independent security reviews
like the one beginning next week at the Estelle unit."
Wardens at all state prisons have been told to check compliance
with security procedures immediately, and periodic security reviews
at all state prisons will be expedited, he said.
Livingston promised that any agency employees found to have
helped Comeaux escape "will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of
the law."
Guard Michael Price was fired Thursday for "reckless
endangerment." Price, who had been a guard for six years, should
have searched Comeaux as he was removed from his cell to be
transferred to a Beaumont prison, Lyons said.
Investigators said earlier that Comeaux, who was in a
wheelchair, was not searched as required.
Comeaux is serving three life sentences for sexually assaulting
a child and for stabbing his former wife and another man during a
1999 visit at a Houston-area prison.