A former FBI agent (FBI) spent 10 years hunting fugitives, he said employees at the Orleans Parish Prison knew for almost certainly and assisted with the 10 people who escaped last Friday.
Scott Duffey spent 22 years with the FBI, including a decade of fugitives, before retiring as a supervisory agent. He is now director of the Institute of Criminal Justice at the University of Wilmington, Delaware.
He said it was almost impossible for 10 people to escape from prison without internal help, or at least no internal person knew about the planned escape.
Scott Duffey spent 22 years with the FBI, including a decade of fugitives, before retiring as a supervisory agent. (Fox News figures)
"If there are 10 people doing this, that means at least that number knows that," he told Fox News Digital. "So it's a big Intel violation. How could this happen if there is no internal help from someone?"
Authorities said they are investigating the help of prison staff. Three employees were suspended before the ongoing investigation.
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"How could there be no one inside?" Duffy said. “That would be a major Intel (and) physical security vulnerability, and I would say everyone needs to look there because that’s a big number (escape).
As for why correctional staff may help prisoners escape, Duffy said there are many reasons, but he specifically mentioned that a romantic relationship with prisoners might be justified.
From an investigation perspective, Duffy said the fugitive may still be in the New Orleans area and may have opened the couch with friends and family to avoid being found.
He said he would put the greatest pressure on those family and friends to turn the prisoners around.
"So everyone in the family will be interviewed immediately and probably had something to do with the Riot Act, well, we're sure he's definitely not here. Now we want to know when you last contacted?" Duffy said. "Have you contacted the fugitive since he escaped? What would happen if you helped the fugitive."
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Romantic relationships are at the center of one of the most recent high-profile escape cases in the United States.
Casey White, a prisoner in Lauderdale County, Alabama, is awaiting a death sentence, while with the help of guards, he was sentenced to 75 years in prison for attempted murder and kidnapping.
Casey White in his latest photos and Vicky White (Alabama Correction | Lauderdale County)
His accomplice was Vicky White, a senior correctional officer in the prison, who allowed him to go out and escape from him.
The couple, lovers, led authorities to conduct an 11-day raid in Tennessee and Indiana, and finally reached the end in a confrontation outside a motel room outside Evansville, Indiana.
The two jumped into the black Cadillac and tried to escape, but were hit by police, causing a crash. Vicky White died of gunshot wounds to the head, and Casey White was arrested and extradited back to Alabama.
After Nora escaped, 7 fugitives are still running away; internal work is suspected
In 2015, another suspected sexual relationship led to a high-profile prison escape.
Two inmates at the Clinton Correctional Institution, Richard Matt and David Sweat, escaped from the largest security facility bordering the small town of Dannemora, in upstate New York.
Richard Matt, right and David Sweat (New York State Police)
Both were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, but with the help of prison worker Joyce "Tilly" Mitchell, the two escaped.
Matt and Sweat allegedly had sexual relations with Mitchell, who provided prisoners with tools to cut off the walls of the cell for three consecutive months during times that were usually reserved for diet and entertainment. A report by the Inspector General later pointed out the culprit for the agency's failure to oversee the duo.
After 20 days of hunting, Matt was shot dead by police about 30 miles from the prison. A few days later, authorities found sweat on a road south of the Canadian border. He was also shot, but he survived the injury and was sent to jail.
Mitchell was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in escape.
Joyce Mitchell held a hearing on June 15, 2015 in the Plattsburgh City Court in Plattsburgh, New York.
That same year, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, escaped from Mexico’s highest security Mexican prison through a mile-long tunnel from his cell to the building yard. It was later confirmed that his cartel United dug a tunnel.
Fourteen years ago, he escaped from a Mexican prison after bribing the guards and escaping from a laundry basket.
New Orleans prison inmate charged with murder and other crimes escape
Guzman was captured by Mexican authorities in 2016, extraditioned to the United States the following year, and was found guilty in 2019 on numerous criminal charges related to his cartel activities. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in ADX Florence, Colorado, Colorado.
Authorities escort Mexican poison ord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a plane in Ronkonkoma, NY (U.S. law enforcement is carried out through AP)
On December 13, 2000, seven men, known as "Texas 7", escaped from the John Connery Unit, the highest security prison near Kennedy, Texas, by overwhelming the guards. They stole a bunch of weapons on the way out of the facility and committed vicious crimes.
When they escaped, two people were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.
On Christmas Eve that year, the men held a sporting goods store and shot and killed Irving policeman Aubry Wright Hawkins.
Between January 22 and 24, 2001, six of them were captured after the episode "The Most Wanted in America" featuring men. He committed suicide for the seventh time before he was detained.
The photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows dead inmate Joseph Garcia died in 2018 from a deadly injection.
They were all sentenced to Hawkins for murder and sentenced to death.
Michael Anthony Rodriguez, one of seven sevens, waived his appeal after his conviction and was executed in 2008.
In 2012, George Rivas, the leader of the escaped prison gang, was executed for murder. Another Escapee, Donald Newbury, was executed in 2015. Fourth place, Joseph Garcia, was executed in 2018.
In 2019, the last two escaped executions were left behind.
Perhaps the most legendary prison escape in American history took place on June 11, 1962, the infamous Alcatraz federal prison from San Francisco Alcatraz.
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That day, Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin were both convicted bank robbers, escaped the prison and unguarded corridors through air ducts as they took the Papier-Mâché model head with portraits to escape in his own bed, cheating the guards.
September 16, 2020 in Berkeley, California, low fog rotates Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge. (Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
They boarded the makeshift raft, crossed out from the island, and could never see it again. They are believed to have drowned in San Francisco Bay.
The fourth potential Escapee, Allen West, did not leave the island.
President Donald Trump has proposed the idea of reopening island prisons, and Alcatraz has been in the news lately.