Jail explosion

Confirmed reports of HUGE gas explosion at county jail. Roof collapse, numerous casualties probable

wow--I just saw that on tv---last night sometime a fire truck came up checking our road -gass--and cracks in the road they were talking about.

wow and the water level hasn't gone done much , maybe by this afternoon sometime maybe it will be off my street but the poor folks at the end of my street still have a lot of water , gass over here must not have been much or they would have told everyone to get out of there houses and that didn't happen so I think were fine , Boy this storm made a mess for everyone.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/local/escambia-county/2014/05/01/explosion-at-escambia-central-booking/8550741/

The news on the radio this morning said inmates had been complaining about the smell of gas all day yesterday.

"Debra Griffin, who also stood nearby, said she was frustrated by the lack of communication. Griffin's son, nephew and daughter-in-law were housed in the facility".

Jail is a family tradition....very sad.

One injured officer is being flown to UAB for more surgeries. He has no feeling/movement from the hips down.

My DIL has a family member there and she cannot get info on him. BOCC decided not to return any more phone inquiries about inmates.

BirdyBack wrote:One injured officer is being flown to UAB for more surgeries.  He has no feeling/movement from the hips down.

My DIL has a family member there and she cannot get info on him.  BOCC decided not to return any more phone inquiries about inmates.  

Has the BOCC given any information about the prisoners? Surely they know who went where and could provide some information.

That is sad news about he guard.

Does anybody know who was running the jail? Was it the county or the Sheriff. I knew there was going to be a handoff, but did they actually make that change, and when did it become effective.

My personal opinion is that the feds need to come in and start over with the criminal justice system in Escambia County where the abuses have continued and seem to never be addressed. 2012 talking about the feds reprimanding an American Jail with Apartheid conditions of separation in the jail. Now with family members trying to get information about loved ones, 24 hours later nobody has the common decency to contact families. Folks it is broken, and clearly as much as I have supported the sheriff, he cannot do the job, and clearly if the County was in charge of this jail and inmates were complaining of gas smells, they cannot handle the job, and either the governor or the feds simply have to start over with training and chain of command.

BOCC is running the jail, has been for some time now. At the news conference, they said that they have handwritten lists that will be available at myescambia.com for people to check on family members. I just looked and the name I was looking for is not on there. The list doesn't say where anyone has been moved to, either. So still no answers for my DIL.

In 2014 this should not happen. I would expect the worse public pound in the country would try to get the dogs out with the smell of gas and if the allegations are correct that complaints were all day long, taxpayers sure better hope that the jail is not self insured and that they have a secondary carrier.

My problem is where is the protocol if suddenly a hurricane cat 4 is bearing down on Pensacola......do you evacuate the prisoners? If so, why did it take all day to do the same with gas smells? Yes, I understand hurricanes and floods, but contingency plans are suppose to address the same, and one of the first priorities is to communicate the condition of an arrestee upon inquiry.

I don't believe that the authorities don't know exactly where each inmate is located. They're either at another correctional facility (which would mean they're not injured) or they're in the hospital. Ridiculous that this information has not already been put together and provided to family members.

I would like to know if someone made a decision to just ignore the complaints of the smell of gas, especially in light of the storm.

I would be horrified despite who was involved in death or injury, but when somebody in charge puts his people in harms way because they have such a low regard for the humanity of people in a jail, that they may have overlooked these ALLEGED complaints of gas all day......it is simply horrifying. Does anybody know if there is resentment since the County took over the operations of the jail, and is there some kind of power struggle between line command and the administrator in charge which could have compounded this awful situation. Chit happens and the allegations may be completely false, but if for a day there was gas present, complained about, and no action was taken.......that almost rises to a criminal action of reckless endangerment. How much Chit can the guy upstairs pile on the plate of the Panhandle? I should not even ask this question as we enter another hurricane season.....this is so sad and unnecessary if the allegations are true.

I suspect, given their history, the BOCC doesn't know a damn thing about operating a jail.

I really do not believe winning an election increases brain cells and makes elected officials competent in all areas.

QueenOfHearts wrote:I don't believe that the authorities don't know exactly where each inmate is located.  They're either at another correctional facility (which would mean they're not injured) or they're in the hospital.  Ridiculous that this information has not already been put together and provided to family members.

I would like to know if someone made a decision to just ignore the complaints of the smell of gas, especially in light of the storm.

My impression after watching the news conference was that they really don't have their act together. If they can say with certainty that all inmates have been accounted for, then they know where each and every inmate is at this time.

There should be an evacuation protocol in place, but I don't recall the jail ever being evacuated before.  The jail and the streets around it flood so easily.  The only time I have ever known of a jail being evacuated was some years back when there was major flooding in Holmes & Washington Counties.  The jail at Caryville was evacuated at the last minute.  Those people should have been moved out much earlier so that it didn't become a rescue operation. It seems as though inmates don't matter very much, both with the flooding there and the gas issue here.

I suspect, given their history, the BOCC doesn't know a damn thing about operating a jail.

I really do not believe winning an election increases brain cells and makes elected officials competent in all areas.

I agree. I just do not know how difficult it is to take an inventory of the deceased and injured and release that to the press after contacting the families. To have innocent loved ones worrying about and being punished with no information is simply wrong.

I doubt if the man upstairs has as much to do with it as we do.  Our system has been broken for a long time, but we choose to ignore it.  We have only ourselves to blame.  We build in swamps, on bluffs, on the beach, then we stand in amazement when shit happens.... .The county fights with the Leos, the city jacks with business owners, public input is minimized, and over sight is nil, and then we wonder why we are one of the poorest counties in Florida.  We are about to get much poorer....

This story was on the Jacksonville local TV news this morning. They said it may become a criminal investigation. 2 dead, over 180 injured.....this is very, very bad.

Its easy to blame others when your not in the trenches trying to get the shit done. Remember that while your arm chairing from your perfect little worlds.

:)Its easy to blame others when your not in the trenches trying to get the shit done. Remember that while your arm chairing from your perfect little worlds.

It has been reported that there were numerous complaints by both inmates and employees for an entire day. If that is true and nothing was done, there should be a criminal investigation.

It should not have taken all day to get information to families. Would you be OK not knowing if your family member was injured or dead??????

One does not have to be perfect in order to be competent.

I feel there is validity in the statement made by my father through his lifetime of living in Pensacola. "This place is run by carpetbaggers and crooks."

  Sad but truly I see his point.

Sheriff Morgan is on the front lines here, but he really did not have responsibility for the jail...thanks to certain members of the BOCC...however, they will try to make him the fall guy. The worst of the problems at the jail occurred on McNesby's watch, not Morgan's. I would like to know who complained and TO WHOM. Somebody dropped the ball, but it wasn't Morgan.