43
Report details T.J. Lane escape in September
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Convicted school shooter Thomas Lane III and two other inmates escaped a Lima prison using a ladder they built out of old wooden cabinets, according to an investigation report released Friday by state officials.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction also said it has beefed up security at the Allen Oakwood Correctional Institution and made other changes in response to the September incident.
“Through both an internal and external review, all areas of concern have been, and will be, thoroughly addressed to ensure the safety and security of our staff, communities and inmate population, and to prevent this type of incident from happening in the future,” prison officials concluded in a the five-page investigation report.
Lane was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting deaths of three students at Chardon High School in February 2012.
According to the new report, he and two other inmates spent months making a 13.5-foot ladder out of “discarded wooden cabinets containing flashlights and batteries” stored in a crawl space-like area near the prison recreation yard.
On Sept. 11, they used the ladder to climb onto the roof of an administration building, then jumped 15 feet off the front side and ran to a nearby soybean field.
One of the three inmates was captured within nine minutes of his escape while still on prison property. Lane was found about five hours later, and the final escapee was caught early the next morning.
All three inmates have since been transferred to the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown.
According to the report, the warden in Lima has been transferred to another facility, and the assistant warden was demoted.
Union officials representing prison employees praised the report.
“We want to make sure that correction officers won’t be scapegoated as this investigation winds down. But so far, it appears the department rightly understands the buck stops at the top,” said Christopher Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, said in a released statement.