Security review underway after Westmoreland inmate jammed lock with paper to escape cell

Westmoreland officials said a review of security protocols at the county jail is underway after an inmate used a piece of paper to escape from his cell and then assaulted a guard making early-morning rounds last week.

Warden Steve Pelesky said the inmate — identified in court documents as John Michael Crowe, 37, of the village of Rillton in Sewickley Township — tampered with a door lock and walked out of his cell shortly after 3 a.m. Aug. 12 when he confronted and exchanged punches with a guard.

Officials said early reports indicate paper stuffed into the locking mechanism fooled the computerized system that controls and monitors the facility’s doors to erroneously reflect that Crowe’s cell was sealed.

“He tampered with the door lock. The control panel showed it was locked,” Pelesky said. “We’re still looking into it and questioning the staff, but it appears that is what happened. The guards have to make sure (doors) are latched.”

The guard, who has not been identified, was punched in the face but not seriously injured and was back to work the following day, according to the warden.

County detectives charged Crowe with aggravated assault, simple assault and escape.

Court records show he had been in jail since January. In June, Crowe was sentenced to six to 23 months in jail for resisting arrest and public drunkenness in North Huntingdon. He has additional cases pending, including charges of making terroristic threats, simple assault, strangulation and harassment.

In the aftermath of the incident, security protocols are being reevaluated. Pelesky said guards are now required to manually ensure cell doors are locked. There were 592 inmates in the prison at the end of July. It has a capacity of 700.

“We’re all making sure, we’re double and triple checking, that doors are locked,” Pelesky said.

Ryan Perry, president of the United Mine Workers Local 522, the union representing corrections officers at the jail, downplayed the security breach but suggested guards have a duty to manually ensure cell doors are locked. Perry said cell doors are routinely locked each night at 9 p.m. and monitored by guards at security stations throughout the facility.

“It looks like this was an isolated issue and any issues will be identified and corrected,” Perry said.

Westmoreland County Commissioner Doug Chew, who serves as chairman of the county prison board, said the security issues will be discussed behind closed doors at the prison board’s scheduled Aug. 26 meeting.

“We have to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen in the future. This is an older prison, and we’re in the process of making upgrades to portions of it,” Chew said.

Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli, who also serves on the prison board, said security issues at the jail will be addressed.

“We’re always learning something. The (inmates) down there are always trying something new, and we have to be ahead of that,” Ziccarelli said.

The two-story jail was built in the early 1990s and has undergone a series of upgrades, including installation of a computerized locking system that controls and monitors the facility’s doors that was completed in 2008. The original doors and lever locking mechanisms remain, officials said.

Commissioners this year awarded contracts totaling more than $779,000 for upgrades to electrical control systems and elevators at the jail. Work is ongoing. Chew said a thorough review of the jail’s door locking systems is included in the ongoing project that could identify additional work to be completed.

“It’s in the very early stages, and we’re assessing our future needs. We’re having discussions about it because these issues are a security concern,” Chew said.