Officials at the Cumberland County Jail have learned that when an inmate snuck out of his cell to have sex with a female inmate two weeks ago, it was not the first time an inmate had slipped the lock on a maximum security cell.

A review of jail records prompted by a request from the Portland Press Herald found that on two occasions in 2002, inmates were able to get out of their maximum security cells.

Additional Photos

Arien L'Italien is accused of sneaking out of the maximum security cell block on the right, crawling across the floor and into the female maximum security cell block on the left where he allegedly had sex with a female inmate. A Cumberland County Jail review found two other inmates had also previously escaped their cells. David Hench / Staff Writer

In neither case was there any contact between the inmates who jimmied their locks and other inmates, Sheriff Kevin Joyce said today.

The records show that on Sept. 16, 2002, corrections officers discovered that a female inmate had apparently tampered with the locks and gotten out of her cell, but only into the day room outside it, Joyce said.

During a bed check on Oct. 16, 2002, an officer found that two inmates had packed plastic into the equivalent of the cell’s doorjamb so that the bolt would not latch. Although neither was caught outside their cell, the inmates were placed under segregation for the offense.

However, two weeks later, one of them used the same technique to slip out after lockdown and go from the day room outside his cell to the day room for another bank of cells housing male inmates.

A corrections officer spotted the inmate — in pink boxer shorts — running from one day room to the other and he was returned to his cell. Joyce said a jail report does not say whether the day room doors were open – as they were when the incident earlier this month happened – but it appears so since the inmate was reported to have moved from one dayroom to another.

Joyce was a captain in the sheriff’s patrol division at the time and said he has no direct knowledge of the incidents.

The technique of packing the locks with plastic so they do not latch is apparently how Arien L’Italien got out of his cell and how Karla Wilson let him into hers, where the two had sex on March 9. L’Italien was caught returning from the female cells to his own block of cells.

State inspectors visited the jail Monday and determined that the steps taken by the corrections staff should prevent similar incidents in the future.

The jail staff now lock the day room doors, physically check the locks for tampering and have moved the observation post in the maximum security area for better visibility.

Joyce said the jail’s electrician also has identified a way to have a buzzer sound when a cell door is opened after hours, alerting corrections officers. he expects an internal review will be completed next week and any other deficiencies will be identified.
 
Joyce has described the March 9 incident as an anomaly and said the public can be confident that the jail and its staff are some of the highest-rated in Maine.

The jail set a state record in 2000 with a 97 percent rating in its first state inspection, according to press reports at the time. It also was the first correctional facility in Maine to be nationally accredited.

Joyce said a national review by the American Correctional Association,  issued in 2007 found the jail in compliance with all mandatory standards and in compliance with 99.5 percent of non-mandatory standards. The jail met met 98.3 percent of non-mandatory standards in 2011, he said.

The state’s biennium inspection in December, 2011, found the jail met all state standards, according to its report.

“We do a lot of things right every day,” Joyce said. “and we’re always working to stay one step of ahead of the inmates, who are always looking to manipulate the system somewhere, be it drugs or messing with locks or what have you.”
 

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