GLOBE, AZ (CBS5) -
Susan Imperatrice was driving to work when she noticed something that seemed odd.
"I was on my way to work and I saw a guy in an orange jump suit, which is an Arizona Department of Corrections inmate running across the street," said Imperatrice.
She's a reporter for KQSS, a local radio station in the Miami-Globe area. Her news instincts kicked in when she saw the inmate.
"Just seemed kind of crazy to me," she said.
It seemed a little off to CBS 5 News too, so a reporter went to Miami to investigate. Our first stop was to sit down with town manager Jerry Barnes.
"Well I mean you can take a snapshot to paint any picture you want," Barnes said.
But this snapshot didn't seem to have another soul in sight.
"He is being supervised, he's never out of eyesight for our people," Barnes said.
The woman in charge of watching that particular inmate is librarian Delvan Hayward.
"I'm surprised that somebody hasn't said something before," Hayward said.
The Department of Corrections drops the inmates off at the town's Senior Center.
Hayward needs extra help at the library, so she wanted an inmate to head up the road. The rules say she needs to supervise him on his way there. The problem is Hayward had surgery about a year ago.
"Frankly I don't want to walk up this steep hill by myself," she said.
So the town said she could follow behind in her car, which you can't see in this picture.
"We get a few double takes crossing the interstate, especially from the truckers," she said.
"Well I'm thinking that he might be trying to escape, we've had that happen here before," Imperatrice said.
It's a reasonable suspicion, given that his supervisor is behind the wheel a few feet back.
"Say this gentleman was to duck down an alley or around a corner, would the librarian have been able to catch up with him?" our reporter asked.
"Well, you know, those inmates are, as you say, low risk, and they could do that at any point, even if they were inside a town hall," Barnes said.
He had a point. The inmates you see cleaning around our state Capitol or sweeping inside the Miami Senior Center have about as much supervision as the one walking to the library, maybe even less. The question is does that make it right?
"I talked to the warden a little bit today, after you and I spoke on the phone," Barnes said.
And because of CBS 5 News' investigation, the town of Miami will stop working with the inmates until they can meet with the DOC.
"This situation will be evaluated to see if we're doing something wrong. If we are, we'll correct it," Barnes said.
Bill Lamoreaux with the Department of Corrections released this statement:
"The inmate in the photo was on a work crew contracted with the town of Miami. At no point was this inmate unaccounted for. The town is responsible for the supervision of the crew, but additional periodic checks throughout the day are also conducted by ADC staff. This inmate was never unsupervised or somewhere he should not have been. All employees, ADC and contract, that work with inmates are required to attend orientation training as well as yearly refresher training. The training includes inmate supervision, safety and liability issues, emergency procedures and inmate manipulation tactics, among other topics. The Department and Town of Miami are reviewing the agreement, as routine, to ensure the crew is operating appropriately."
ADC has more than 3,000 inmates participating in 80 Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs) and correctional industry work programs in communities around Arizona. These inmate programs are an asset and resource to the taxpayers of Arizona and provide labor to complete projects that otherwise could not be done because of limited resources. In fiscal year 2011 alone, the IGA program had a cost avoidance for Arizona tax payers of $16.86 million.
CBS 5 News will be sure to follow up on that review and let you know what, if any, changes will be made to the system.
Copyright 2012 KPHO (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.
