Prison Worker Suspended for Escape

Thursday, January 18th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DALLAS (AP) â€” A Texas prison employee was disciplined by supervisors for failing to report what he saw the day seven convicts escaped, but he says he had no clue anything was wrong.

Jerry McDowell, a prison recreation specialist, said Wednesday he was being suspended without pay for three weeks and placed on probation for a year.

Seven prisoners who broke out of the Connally Unit in South Texas on Dec. 13 are still missing. The men overpowered civilian workers and a guard and are suspected in a Christmas Eve robbery that left a police officer dead.

According to an investigative report released last week, McDowell spotted three of the inmates after they had taken the hostages and while they were in the process of escaping.

McDowell, 37, told The Dallas Morning News he did not realize what was taking place.

``I mean, I'm a recreation specialist. ... My way of seeing things is totally different from the way a guard would see it.''

Prison authorities would not comment on McDowell's punishment. McDowell was cited in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice report for failing to report unsupervised prisoners.

He said it was common to see unsupervised inmates at the prison. The seven escapees were in a classification requiring only periodic supervision, officials said.

McDowell, who had gone to the maintenance area to check out a toolbox, encountered inmates George Rivas, Randy Halprin and Patrick Murphy, according to the report.

When McDowell asked where the maintenance supervisor was, Rivas told him that the supervisor had gone to a dormitory. McDowell, according to the report, should have reported the inmates immediately to security. The inmates had already overpowered several maintenance supervisors and a correctional officer. The hostages, bound and gagged, were held in an electrical room in the shop.