STANLEY OFFICIALS STILL IN THE DARK ABOUT PRISON ESCAPE
Friday, February 12th, 2010 -- 11:47 AM
The Mayor of the City of Stanley is getting new information about a recent prison escape the same way as the public: through the media."I've had one limited conversation with the warden here in Stanley," explains Mayor Dave Jankowski. "(He said) this was an open and ongoing investigation and when the reprts were in, he would be having a meeting to share some information."
Jankowski wishes the state Department of Corrections would have been more forthright about the breach.
Sometime last month, two inmates used forged documents to escape from the Stanley Prison. Officials have said the public wasn?t notified because they were never at risk, but the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Thursday one of the escapees was a convicted murderer with gang ties.
"In no way would I be in any position to make a judgment as to if this was a cover-up. There could have been something legitimate, I don't know," he says, "but, I still think that community officials should have been notified as soon as this occurred."
The paper reported Thursday that Jimmy Baldwin, who was convicted for a 1994 gang-related murder in Milwaukee, was apprehended late last month in Milwaukee. It?s still unclear how long he was on the lam.
Jankowski is in a sensitive spot. Many of the 2,000 residents in his Chippewa Co. community are not pleased right now, but the prison is good employer and community partner.
"We've never had an incident like this before. This is new territory for us," Jankowski notes.
The Stanley Police Department hopes to wrap up their investigation into the incident in the next few weeks.
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