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Reports Show Security Violations in Inmate Escape

Bob Andres-Associated Press

In  reports release today regarding a deadly escape in June, state officials say two Georgia prison guards violated several security procedures, including failing to properly search and secure their prisoners on a transfer bus.

The two reports lay the blame for the escape on the slain guards, and corrections officials said numerous procedures are being revised in response. The security lapses enabled inmates Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe to exit the inmate compartment, overpower Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue and used the officers' guns to kill them, according to a report from an external review conducted after the June 13 escape.

Three changes were made immediately following the escape: a trail vehicle was added for every prison transport by June 20; all transportation officers underwent refresher training between June 20 and June 28; and a duty officer was assigned at all facilities to ensure compliance with transport procedures. More changes will follow.

Donnie Rowe and Rickey Dubose

The external review report says it began when Monica and Billue missed what's believed to be a toothbrush when searching Rowe before he boarded the bus around 4:42 a.m. The officers failed to double-lock the inmates' restraints, which is required by policy. That allowed Dubose to remove his handcuffs within two minutes of boarding the bus and then to remove the cuffs from Rowe and many other inmates, the report says.

The "single greatest point of failure" was the failure to secure the gate between the inmate compartment and the officer compartment on the bus, the report says.

The officers violated policy by leaving their assigned handguns in storage boxes throughout the trip rather than wearing them, and by not wearing ballistic vests. Billue's vest was later found in his personal vehicle. Monica didn't even have a ballistic vest, and a separate vest that blocks stab wounds was retrieved from his family.

Dubose and Rowe are facing charges including murder in the guards' deaths.

Credit Tennessee Bureau of Investigation via AP
Dubose and Rowe captured in Tennessee

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