But on the inside, the jail holding 900 of the county’s most dangerous inmates is thoroughly old school, right down to its brass keys and locks, and its 19th-century design principles that U.S. Opened in 1968, the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana may have excellent “curb appeal” due to its deceptively modern-looking façade. But interviews and court records offer a breakdown of the twisting, dangerous and ingenious route used in the breakout – and how it exploited the weaknesses inherent in a jail nearly a half-century old. The department has held back many details for fear of tipping off other would-be escapees. The catchall term “jail politics” is often cited to explain otherwise baffling behavior at the lockup. “Jail politics are an interesting thing,” sheriff’s public affairs manager Carrie Braun says by way of explanation, as other jail personnel nodded in solemn agreement.

Just as perplexing, none of the other inmates tried to join the exodus, even though the escape route could have accommodated more than three. Yet none of their tank-mates ratted out the escapees. What kind of cutting tools were used, and how did the inmates get them and use them inside a maximum-security dormitory without being detected? The dorm – a “tank” in jailhouse terms – holds 68 inmates in a jail riddled with informants. One of the biggest manhunts in Orange County history has now morphed into one of the most intensive investigations ever of the strengths and weaknesses of Orange County’s only maximum-security lockup.Īs the department assembles a team of local and outside jail experts to undertake that review, many questions remain. With the re-arrest Friday of one escapee, and the capture in San Francisco of his two compatriots on Saturday, Kea could get that chance. “I look forward to asking them about that when we bring them in,” Kea says. But the teacher has denied knowing what sort of cutting tool the escapees used to overcome so many thick steel bars and grates, or where it came from. That last piece fell into place with Thursday’s arrest of an alleged helper on the inside: an English-as-a-second-language teacher at the jail who allegedly passed on Google maps that helped the escapees scout such locations as the jail rooftop. This is going to be our mindset.”Īfter a week of investigation, the Sheriff’s Department has pieced together a partial picture of how the escape succeeded through a combination of daring, luck, the shortcomings of an outdated and understaffed jail, and betrayal from within. “This sheriff’s big audacious goal is to never have another escape. But we’re going to learn from it,” she says. “We’re terribly embarrassed and frustrated by what occurred. The audacity of the inmates, Sheriff Sandra Hutchens promises, will be matched by her own bold response once the investigation, analysis and soul-searching is complete.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of inmates with nothing but time on their hands and a grim future behind bars looming ahead, says Assistant Sheriff Steve Kea. Take a virtual visit through the escape route:ģD image and illustrations by Jeff Goertzen reporting by Keith Sharon, Jeff Goertzen and Kurt Snibbe online graphic development by Sean StoopsĮven the man in charge of the jails, who thought he had seen it all in his 30-year career at the department, grudgingly assessed the elaborate escape plan as an extraordinary criminal enterprise – not to mention a wake-up call for the entire jail staff, bottom to top.

Then maximum-security inmates Hossein Nayeri, Jonathan Tieu and Bac Tien Duong vanished in the predawn darkness on Jan. Moving like rats in the walls, the inmates sawed through one set of bars after another as they followed dusty old airshafts upward to freedom.īut the most audacious element of the escape had to be their choice of landing zones as they emerged on the jail roof, then climbed down five stories on a flimsy rope of hoarded bed sheets: They alighted next to the main public entrance of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. As they cut, crawled, climbed and rappelled their way to freedom, the first inmates to bust out of the Orange County Central Jail in more than a quarter-century were nothing if not audacious.įirst they carved a heavy steel ventilator grill into a human-sized doggie door next to one of their bunks – sawing away inside a crowded jail dormitory overseen by a secure, glassed-in guard corridor that was supposed to deter just such mayhem.īolder still was the three inmates’ next move: a covert exploration of the archaic jail’s catacombs of plumbing and ventilation tunnels on the other side of that homemade hatchway.

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