The Michigan Department of Corrections has released a report on last month’s escape from a state prison in Ionia. The report puts much of the blame on two corrections employees.
Convicted killer Michael Elliot, dressed all in white to match the snow on the ground, slipped through the fences at the Ionia Correctional facility to freedom the night of February 2. He was captured in northern Indiana the next day, after carjacking a woman in Ionia.
State prison officials say their investigation found a sensor that would have detected Elliot’s escape was turned off for six hours on the day of the escape. The sensor had been tested earlier that day, but was not reset by prison employees.
“Unfortunately, complacency on the part of the some of the staff working there and the failure to reset after a test is probably the glaring reason why he was able to escape that day,” says Russ Marlan, the spokesman for the state corrections department.
The report identified several other problems that contributed to Elliot’s escape.
Two corrections department employees remain on suspension.
