LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It's been over four days since a group of inmates broke out of their holding cells at New Orleans' largest jail. Six remain on the run. And as Matt Bloom with member station WWNO reports, authorities are now looking at whether they got help from the inside.
MATT BLOOM, BYLINE: The escape began just after midnight last Friday. Surveillance video shows two inmates yanking a cell door off its tracks. Then, in less than an hour, they broke a toilet off a cell wall. Joined by eight others, they all squeezed through the hole behind it to find a route outside. The escapees even had time to leave a note on the cell wall on their way out, writing, quote, "too easy." Orleans Sheriff Susan Hutson says there are still a lot of unanswered questions about how they did it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SUSAN HUTSON: Based on video surveillance, they were seen exiting a door on the docks, where we normally bring in supplies, scaling a wall and running across the interstate shortly thereafter.
BLOOM: The jail has been under federal oversight for years. A monitor's report found inadequate safety inspections, multiple broken cell door locks and chronic understaffing. Hutson acknowledged those problems in a recent press conference. She also says the escapees likely had help.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HUTSON: We have indication that these detainees received assistance in their escape from individuals inside of our department. And the escape was discovered during a routine head count at 8:30 a.m.
BLOOM: Three deputies remain suspended amid the investigation. The escapees, between the ages of 19 and 42, are awaiting trial for a variety of charges, ranging from domestic battery to murder. Authorities say they are armed and dangerous. The FBI and state agencies have upped the reward to $20,000 for information about each inmate. As the search continues, officials have started trading blame.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JEFF LANDRY: The public deserves to know who, what and how this happened.
BLOOM: Republican Governor Jeff Landry has called for an audit of the Orleans jail. He wants it to be done by the end of this week.
For NPR News, I'm Matt Bloom in New Orleans.
(SOUNDBITE OF HUMAN BELL'S "HYMN AMERIKA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.