Employees at a privately run prison near Kingman are to blame for the escape of three inmates Friday night, according to the state Department of Corrections director.

Chuck Ryan said the design of the facility in Golden Valley, which houses medium- and minimum- security inmates, was not to blame, nor was Arizona's inmate-classification system, which allows murderers to live among other criminals in a medium-security setting.

"Human error is the contributor to this escape," Ryan said Tuesday.

Tracy Province, 42, John McCluskey, 45, and Daniel Renwick, 36, escaped Friday night.

Province and Renwick are convicted murderers. McCluskey was serving time for attempted murder.

A spokesman for the company that operates the prison said Utah-based Management and Training Corp. is cooperating with a Department of Corrections investigation and will not comment until the inquiry is complete.

Ryan said a preliminary investigation indicates that McCluskey's fiancé, Casslyn Welch of Mesa, parked in the desert near the prison sometime Friday evening and walked to a berm on its east end.

Investigators believe the three inmates left their dorm-style housing building through a door that apparently did not have a functioning alarm and were standing in an area used to house dogs, where they communicated with Welch that no corrections officers were around, Ryan said.


"We think staff were predictable in their movements and performance of their duties," he said.

Investigators believe Welch climbed over the berm and threw tools to the inmates. The prisoners climbed out of the small yard, which had no barbed wire, and used the tools to cut through two fences before crawling out.

Ryan said an alarm sounded at 9 p.m., indicating activity between the prison's interior and exterior fences, but investigators do not know if staff members checked it out.

Prison staff members notified DOC officials of the breakout after 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Renwick was captured in western Colorado early Sunday after a shootout with police, and he has been providing U.S. Marshal's officials with information about the escape, Ryan said.

The last confirmed sighting of Province, McCluskey and Welch came at an ATM in the Valley on Saturday. Reports that the escapees bought a car were erroneous.

Family members of Province's victim raised concerns that he was housed in a medium-security facility after stabbing Norman Knoblich of Tucson 51 times in 1991.

But Province's case is not unique.

There are more than 1,400 inmates serving time for murder in medium-security settings in Arizona, including 796 with life sentences. More than 100 are housed at the prison near Kingman, the only private facility in Arizona to house murderers.

"Hindsight would say all of them (the escapees) should have been in maximum (custody) - they escaped," Ryan said, adding that not all inmates "require placement in maximum security."



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/08/03/20100803arizona-inmate-escape-corrections-chief-blames-staff.html#ixzz0wG5Dqpo0