'TAUT WIRE' SECURITY SYSTEM SAID TO HAVE BEEN WORKING

The Fugitives Apparently Got Around The Prison's Electronic Device

Two convicts who escaped Monday from Fort Madison's maximum-security
prison avoided tripping a high-tech alarm system by reaching the roof
of an old Death Row cellhouse and then, with the aid of a homemade
rope and grappling hook, leaping over the electronic barrier while
scaling a 30-foot wall to freedom.

Former Lt. Gov. Arthur Neu of Carroll, a longtime member of the Iowa
Board of Corrections, said Friday he was informed this week by Iowa
Corrections Director Gary Maynard that the "taut wire" security
system had been operating properly at the time of escape. The wires
are installed about midway up the inside of the towering limestone
wall that surrounds the Iowa State Penitentiary.

Neu said Maynard told him the inmates threw the rope with a grappling
hook to the top of the wall, enabling them to go well above the taut
wire system. Iowa prison officials have said the inmates had been on
the roof of an adjacent building before they climbed the wall.

"They apparently threw whatever over those security wires, and then
when they pulled themselves up they stepped over the wires, as I
understand it. The system wasn't maybe all it was cracked up to be," Neu said.

But Neu said that it's more important now to determine the facts of
the escape, and that it's premature to reach any conclusions.

The convicts, Martin Shane Moon, 34, and Robert Joseph Legendre, 27,
who have been caught, escaped over a section of the wall where Guard
Tower No. 4 was vacant because of budget cuts. Prison officials
believe they had been watching movements of correctional officers at
the prison well before the escape in an effort to find
vulnerabilities in the penitentiary's security.

The taut wire barrier, installed three years ago at prisons at Fort
Madison, Anamosa and Mount Pleasant, has a number of high-tensile
strength wires strung between anchor posts. Attempting to climb the
fence, spread the wires or cut them sounds a computerized alarm.

Fred Scaletta, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections,
declined Friday to confirm Maynard's remarks to Neu. But Scaletta
said the guard tower that was vacant is again being staffed around
the clock. The 24-hour staffing resumed Tuesday, he said. At the time
of the escapes, the tower was staffed until 3 p.m. each day.

Two years ago, two inmates escaped from the state prison at Oakdale,
just north of Iowa City, by climbing over a pair of fences. Prison
officials acknowledged afterward that alarms on the fences had been
turned off because of a prison expansion project. Both inmates were
captured in Atlanta.

Donald Tietz of Algona, who served three terms on the Iowa Board of
Corrections, said Friday the facts suggest the fugitives fled in the
manner Neu described.

Tietz helped to develop plans for the taut wire system with former
Iowa Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky.

"It would appear there were a series of errors that led to the
escape," said Tietz.

The state's policy has been that a work supervisor in Iowa Prison
Industries should count inmates when they leave the prison shop where
the two inmates had been working prior to the escape, Tietz said. A
control point in the prison yard was created as a backup to ensure an
accurate count and prevent such problems, he said.

"It would appear the work supervisor did not have an accurate count
of inmates when they left the shop, or officers at the control center
on the yard did not verify the count for inmates assigned to Prison
Industries," Tietz said.

The taut wire system cost an estimated $3.5 million, but prison
officials said it would provide savings of at least $1.5 million
annually in operating costs by eliminating a total of 38 correctional
officers' positions in guard towers at the three prisons.

Gov. Tom Vilsack proposed the plan as part of his 2002 budget package
which was approved by the Iowa Legislature.

The old Death Row cellhouse which was used to help launch the escapes
is in the southwest corner of the prison yard.