According to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, a female jail supervisor has been terminated along with a female deputy jailer after the escape of two inmates last week.
Jefferson County Detention Center inmates Wesley Gullett, 30, and Christopher Sanderson, 34, escaped from the detention center reportedly between 8:30 p.m. on Monday, July 29, and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 30.
Jefferson County Sheriff Lafayette Woods, Jr., said in a statement that the supervisor and jailer did not follow protocol "as it relates to conducting cell checks and immediately reporting issues."
Sheriff Woods also said that the search efforts would have been successful a lot sooner for the escaped inmates, one of whom is suspected of being the president of the Aryan Empire.
The termination action cites inefficiency and substandard work performance. Both employees, whose names were not released have the chance to appeal the termination decision, police say.
“The number of training hours facilitated by our internal training division exceeds the minimum requirements set forth by jail standards. We do this, because we want to ensure full competency at the start of each work day no matter the obstacles,” said Woods.
We recognize that this profession much like the enforcement side of our operations is a highly stressful environment. But, we still expect all of our staff to perform their duties and functions thoroughly and efficiently,” Woods said.
The facility allows one jailer to be in charge of each pod that houses an inmate. However, due to understaffing, that isn't possible at the JCDC, Sheriff Woods said.