What to Know
- The escape of two prisoners on Monday is shedding light on current issues with Philadelphia’s jails and leading to more calls for the city’s prisons commissioner to step down.
- Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on 8301 State Road around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, according to police.
- A report sent to NBC10 by the union that represents Philadelphia correctional officers stated the prisoners were able to escape due to staffing issues at the prison. Both the Department of Prisons and the Mayor's Office said this report was false however and that staffing issues did not play a role in the incident.
The escape of two prisoners on Monday is shedding light on current issues with Philadelphia’s jails and leading to more calls for the city’s prisons commissioner to step down.
Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, escaped from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on 8301 State Road around 8:30 p.m. Sunday, according to police.
Grant had been admitted to the center on September 28, 2022, on criminal conspiracy, violation of the uniform firearms act and drug charges, officials said.
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Hurst had been admitted to the center on March, 21, 2021, on four murder charges, including the deadly shooting of Rodney Hargrove outside the same facility back in March of 2021.
The two inmates were housed in different cells that were in the same housing unit, according to officials.
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Philadelphia Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney said all prisoners were reported as accounted for when head counts were taken at 11 p.m. Sunday, 3 a.m. Monday and 7 a.m. Monday, despite Grant and Hurst escaping earlier Sunday evening.
It wasn't until a head count at 3 p.m. Monday when officials at the center realized Grant and Hurst had escaped more than 18 hours earlier, according to Carney. Surveillance video showed Grant and Hurst cutting a hole in the fence of the recreation yard and escaping Sunday evening, police said.
As police and U.S. Marshals continue to search for Hurst and Grant, Commissioner Carney continued to answer questions on Tuesday regarding how the escape occurred in the first place.
“We have protocols in place,” Carney said. “And the protocols have to be followed. And so that’s part of our investigation to see what happened. What was followed. What wasn’t followed.”
Carney said the entire facility was placed on lockdown following the escape and all other inmates were accounted for. She also said there were ongoing perimeter patrols as well as campus patrols at the facility and officials were investigating the center’s handling of the incident.
“I’m a leader that holds people accountable for the stakeholders and the taxpayers' dollars. We have to perform these jobs,” Carney said.
When asked about accountability for herself, Carney replied by saying, “I’m accountable because when I hold myself accountable, it’s looking at was policy followed. And if it wasn’t, I have to take appropriate action.”
David Robinson, the president of Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33 – the union representing Philadelphia correctional officers – believes the appropriate action should be Carney’s resignation. His union held a no confidence vote in Carney earlier in the month. Carney told NBC10 she won’t resign.
“That’s a shame. It’s time for new leadership,” Robinson said. “We had a vote of no confidence on May 2nd. It was unanimous. I reached out to the mayor’s office and of course the mayor said that he supports her. That’s his pick. His term is almost up so I don’t see him firing her. I don’t see her resigning. But how many more people have to die? How many more inmates have to escape before we know enough is enough?”
Robinson said the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center is understaffed by about 100 positions, including the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift of armed officers at the outer perimeter. He also said the unit where Hurst and Grant were held has been unmanned at times and prisoners are not required to get out of bed.
“Either they sleep hard or they want to ignore you,” Robinson said. “They don’t want to get up at all but you see their body.”
NBC10 obtained two screenshots of incident reports detailing the escape, one from Local 159 and one from a Department of Prisons spokesperson.
According to the report that was sent by the union, the head count at 3 p.m. on Monday was conducted after other prisoners told staff members at the Correctional Center that other inmates had possibly escaped custody. The head count then determined that Hurst was not accounted for in cell number five while Hurst was not accounted for in cell number six. All areas were checked and yard patrol was activated.
When workers checked the recreational yard, they discovered a hole in the fence. They then looked at surveillance video which showed Hurst and Grant escaping from their cell door and exiting their housing unit before squeezing through the hole in the yard and climbing over the fence around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, the report said. According to the report, their housing unit was “unmanned due to staff shortage.” The report also stated both prisoners were able to escape undetected “because of post being closed due to temporary staff shortage per the order of the executive office.”
The spokesperson for the Department of Prisons told NBC10 that description is not accurate however and that the post was not closed due to staffing issues. He sent NBC10 a photo of what the city says is the official summary of the incident. That report makes no mention of any staffing issues.
The spokesperson however did not respond to questions about existing orders regarding staffing posts.
Early Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney released a statement claiming the report sent by the union was forged.
“PDP is aware of a document shared with media resembling an internal report, containing information that is inaccurate,” the spokesperson wrote. “Media are advised this document is forged and not an official report by the PDP. The report states, 'both incarcerated people were able to leave the grounds undetected because of a post being closed due to temporary staff shortage per the order of the executive office.' The executive staff of the PDP categorically denies this claim.”
Staffing Issues at Philly Prisons
Staffing has been an issue for Philadelphia jails since 2020, according to Noah Barth, a prison monitor with the nonprofit group Pennsylvania Prison Society.
“The escape is only the latest, most notable sign of the lack of staffing and the lack of staff supervision that’s been plaguing the jails for quite some time,” Barth told NBC10.
Barth’s group advocates for humane prison conditions.
“We’ve been observing and reporting on decrepit conditions, problems with rodents, moldy showers, broken lights, broken phones, inoperable locks,” Barth said. “So the problems are diffuse.”
With about 4,000 inmates, Philadelphia jails are supposed to have more than 2,000 full-time staff, including guards, maintenance and health care workers. City records show a decrease in full time staff at the city’s jails between 2020 and 2022 followed by a slight rise between 2022 and 2023.
“Those exact same gaps have resulted in people dying. In people going unattended in state of emergency. In people missing court dates,” Barth said.
Incidents have included riots and assaults involving inmates on other inmates as well as attacks on staff. Some of those incidents were attributed to faulty locks.
During the Department of Prisons budget hearing in April, Commissioner Carney spoke about the locks at the jails getting replaced.
“Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility has 90 percent of the completion of the locks,” Carney said at the time. “We had ten percent that required significant framework before you could install the new locks. So those are the outstanding ten percent at PICC.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Prisons said the locks on the cells that Grant and Hurst escaped from were checked on Tuesday and were “fine.” The spokesperson didn’t specify however whether or not they were new locks or the old locks that are set for replacement.
In regards to staffing issues, Commissioner Carney said she’s increasing the pay for new correctional officers getting out of the academy as well as opening up two more academies to help get more recruits. She also said the department is pushing to recruit retired correctional officers.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Marshals Service said it is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to each person’s arrest. Philadelphia has also set up a reward for $20,000 for information that leads to an arrest of either escaped inmate.
If you have any information on their whereabouts, please call Philadelphia Police at 215-686-TIPS or 911. You can also contact the U.S. Marshals Service at 1-800-336-0102.
