An inmate was “mistakenly” released from a Baltimore jail while on trial for murder last week, and he’s still on the lam. Now, a state delegate wants to turn the criminal investigation on the prison guards who let him out, according to the Associated Press.
Rodriquez Purnell, who was charged with killing a man on St. Patrick’s Day 2014, got out of jail free on Friday from the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center in Baltimore. In a brief statement, prison officials didn’t come clean about how the blunder happened. Making matters worse, they said they didn’t realize Purnell was gone until two days later.
That left an opening for state Delegate John Cluster to offer up his own criticism. Calling for an investigation into Purnell’s getaway, the Baltimore County Republican noted that inmates are supposed to be counted every night.
“If this is done nightly, how could such a dangerous person not come up missing immediately?” said Cluster, who was one of several lawmakers to draft jail reforms in the wake of the Black Guerilla Family scandal at the Baltimore City Correctional Center.
While we’re asking questions: How did he get out in the first place?
