St. Petersburg Times,
published August 25, 2001

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LECANTO -- A guard handed a key to the three youths who escaped from Cypress Creek Correctional Facility in May, but that wasn't the only problem. Management also wasn't keeping the doors locked, state investigators have found.

Supervisors at the juvenile prison failed to ensure doors were properly locked, according to a report released this week by the Inspector General of the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Also, the master control panel, which is used to control all the facility's doors, frequently gave false readings, which means guards could not tell if a door was really locked or unlocked, the report said.

All of these factors contributed to the May 4 escape of three inmates from Cypress Creek, which houses some of the state's most hard-core juvenile offenders.

Two of the inmates, Jeffrey Deberry, 17, and Darious White, 18, were chased down before they could climb an outer security fence. The third, Anthony Valazquez, 18, was apprehended by a Citrus County sheriff's deputy a short time later outside of a restaurant on State Road 44.

All three pleaded no contest to one count of escaping from a detention facility. They were sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail, to be served after they complete their juvenile sentences.

The person most directly responsible for the escape was detention guard Ryan Johnson, the report said. According to interviews the escapees gave inspectors, Johnson gave Valazquez his keys on the evening of the escape so the youth could open his bedroom door.

At about 9:55 p.m. Valazquez used those keys to open an outside door, which leads to the facility's drill pad, or exercise area. The three teens climbed over a security fence, using a blanket to protect themselves from the razor wire.

Another guard, Joseph Reitsch, told investigators he saw Johnson give his keys to one of the teens. He told the teen to return the keys to Johnson, who replied "You know these guys, these guys aren't going to do anything. Don't worry about that. I do it all the time."

Reitsch was suspended for one day for failing to immediately notify a supervisor of the violation. Johnson, who worked at the prison for about a year, could not be reached for comment. He was fired May 17.

Johnson was not interviewed for the inspector general's report. Repeated attempts to locate Johnson by the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cypress Creek officials were unsuccessful.

Cypress Creek is a maximum security facility that Correctional Services Corp., a private company, runs on behalf of the Department of Juvenile Justice. The prison takes Level 10 offenders, those convicted of serious crimes.

Carolyn Floyd, regional director of residential programs in northeast Florida, said Johnson was frequently seen playing cards with the inmates in the evenings.

"He let his guard down," Floyd said. "Supervision, supervision, supervision. He should have always been supervising these kids."

But, according to the report, the facility also was having difficulty keeping its own doors shut.

During an internal investigation conducted by Cypress Creek, Johnson said the door to the drill pad was unlocked when he checked it at 3 p.m. the day of the escape.

Kimberly Williams, who was the master control operator at the time of the escape, said the drill pad doors would "circulate," which means they would open on their own, the report said. A staff member would then have to manually lock the door.

Other guards told inspectors the locks at Cypress Creek did not work properly and the doors were frequently kicked in by inmates.

How could the locks on the doors at a facility built to house serious juvenile offenders not work?

Eric Gallon, Cypress Creek's facility administrator, said he wasn't aware of the Department of Juvenile Justice's finding. "I have no idea," he said. "I don't do their reports."

Gallon said it's possible that an electronic glitch could result in a door unlocking itself automatically, but he wasn't aware of any problems the doors have caused.

"That's just something that some of the guards told (inspectors)," he said.

Floyd said she also was unaware of any problems with the doors.

In addition, inspectors faulted Cypress Creek for having an inadequate number of guards on duty. The ratio of guards to inmates is supposed to be 1-to-8 at night, according to Department of Juvenile Justice standards. The ratio at Cypress Creek was 1-to-16.

The facility has made a number of changes since the escape, said Floyd. Only supervisors are allowed to carry keys to outside doors. Every six months guards must undergo training, during which the key policy is emphasized.

Also, more classes have been organized for the evenings to give inmates less down time, and razor wire was installed on the exterior fence.

"There were just a lot of little, minor things that could have led to a major incident," Floyd said. "But those have been corrected now."

St. Petersburg Times

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