Carter inmate zapped in escape attempt, sheriff says

[lewisipso]

ELIZABETHTON — A prisoner in the Carter County Jail had a shocking experience during an alleged escape attempt Thursday night and Sheriff Chris Mathes pointed to the discovery of the attempt as a reason why the soon-to-be-completed jail should have direct supervision and more guards instead of relying on video cameras for security.
Mathes said guards were making their regularly scheduled security checks at 10:13 p.m. when they heard “a loud scraping noise” coming from D Block.
Mathes said Correctional Officer James Stevens found three chairs stacked on top of each other and noticed some dust that appeared to have come from the ceiling. When Stevens looked up at the ceiling, they noticed the metal plate in the ceiling of the shower had been moved.
Officers moved the plate and saw prisoner John Wayne Johnson, 24, 815 Lincoln Ave., Johnson City, in a crawl space above the ceiling. Johnson began to crawl out of the space and touched some electrical wires, shocking him and tripping a circuit breaker, causing a temporary power outage. Maintenance personnel were called in to restore power.
Mathes said Johnson was not injured. He had been serving a sentence on violation of probation. Corporal Christina Phillips said Johnson damaged both the ceiling plate and the ceiling. She said Johnson said he was attempting to get to the property room, where those who are arrested are required to place their personal items when they are booked into jail.
The sheriff said whatever Johnson’s intent may have been, the department considers it to be an escape attempt whenever a prisoner is found in the ceiling crawl space.



JohnsonCityPress.com - Local News - Johnson City, TN

[CTR man]

Anybody for some fried inmate? I hear they make for a great tasty troll treat.

[Ducky]

Mathes said Johnson was not injured.

Damn. Maybe he'd have learned not to be stupid if he had been hurt a little bit.