By Renatta Signorini and Paul Peirce
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — Fayette County jail Warden Brian Miller is investigating a possible attempted escape or smuggling route through a glass block window.
Miller notified members of the prison board, which includes the commissioners, of his investigation Tuesday afternoon, said Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink.
“He informed us that there was a possible prison escape he’s investigating,” Zimmerlink said.
On Tuesday evening, Miller said he couldn’t confirm that the damage incurred to the 19th-century stone building in Uniontown was an escape attempt. But he said someone was scraping at mortar from both the inside and outside.
“It looks like someone was digging out the mortar joint around one of the big stones outside and there also was some similar activity going on inside. But whether they were just trying to dig it out to send in some sort of contraband or trying to remove the big brick for an escape attempt, we don’t know at this point because we’re still investigating it,” Miller said.
Miller said joint compound securing a security block glass window above the damaged stone also was tampered with from the interior.
“Our main priority today was getting that area secured again. We’ve moved all the prisoners who had direct access there out of that area,” Miller said.
“Thank God we caught it when we did. But again, I feel it’s too early to definitely term it an escape attempt,” the warden said.
Miller said the jail has surveillance video of the exterior area where the mortar was scraped and he intends to study the tapes.
“But who knows how far back we’ll have to go?” Miller said.
Miller said another jail employee notified him of the “tampering” about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Commissioner Al Ambrosini said he was told that someone inside the jail scraped mortar between stone and glass block.
“They weren’t very far along, in my opinion,” Ambrosini said. “Calling it an attempted break is a stretch.”
Uniontown police were not notified of the situation, Chief Jason Cox said. However, Miller said he intends to inform police of the ongoing investigation.
“It’s really early into (the investigation) at this point,” Miller said.
Sheriff Gary Brownfield declined to comment.
“Warden Miller is in charge of the investigation. I really can’t comment because I do not know what occurred because Warden Miller is still investigating,” Brownfield said.
Ambrosini said he is satisfied with the warden handling the investigation.
“It wasn’t a prison break,” he said.
Miller believes he’ll be able to determine what happened after reviewing the security tapes.
“Our video is pretty clear, but ... we don’t know how far back we’ll have to go to find it. But I’m hopeful we’ll be able to pinpoint it,” he said.