Authorities have arrested an Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office employee following the escape of 10 inmates, the Louisiana Attorney General's office confirmed Tuesday.
Sheriff Susan Hutson has said she believes the jail break was an inside job and last week told reporters her agency had suspended three employees pending an investigation.
“It’s almost impossible, not completely, but almost impossible for anybody to get out of this facility without help,” she said of the Orleans Justice Center, a correctional facility where 1,400 people are being held.
The inmates escaped through a hole in a wall behind a toilet in the early hours of Friday while the lone guard watching them went to get food. This guard was not the employee arrested, Lester Duhe, a spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office, told the Associated Press in a text message.
Duhe did not provide the name of the person arrested or detail possible charges.
At least one of the steel bars protecting plumbing fixtures “appeared to have been intentionally cut using a tool,” the sheriff’s office stated.
The inmates quickly shed their uniforms and changed into regular clothes.
The absence of the inmates, many charged with or convicted of violent offenses such as murder, was not reported for hours. Four have since been apprehended and six remain at large.
Since the escape, Hutson has pointed to long-standing deficiencies such as faulty locks and staffing shortages. But a growing number of state and local officials have said blame for the escape rests squarely on her for failing her responsibility to keep inmates locked up.
The New Orleans City Council is scheduled to discuss the jail break with the sheriff's office and other authorities at a Tuesday meeting.
