37 have escaped Indiana prisons since 2000

Prison officials know three inmates escaped Indiana State Prison in Michigan City through tunnels under the maximum-security facility but have little clue how the men got into the tunnels.

On Monday, one of the three escapees was caught and two remained fugitives, leaving people from southern Michigan to central Indiana uneasy.

Someone -- officials suspect the convicts -- removed metal bars and bricks from tunnels where sewer, water and other utility lines come into the 149-year-old facility Sunday morning.

The three men are among the 37 inmates who have escaped from Indiana prisons since 2000, according to Department of Correction records.

In the nine years, two other inmates have escaped from the Michigan City facility, most recently in April. Steven R. Grove, 26, who was assigned to a minimum-security work crew at the state prison, was at-large for a week before he was captured at Benton Harbor, Mich., 40 miles to the north.

Nationwide, the Bureau of Justice Statistics tracked about 3,000 escapes and absences without leave from state prisons in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

Freedom lasted less than 24 hours for one escapee. On Monday, convicted murderer Charles Smith, 48, of New Castle, Ind., was captured in Grand Beach, Mich.

Still free are Lance Battreal, 45, a convicted rapist and stalker from Rockport, Ind., and Mark Booher, who was serving a 65-year sentence for murder and robbery..

Steven Oplinger, a Florida-based systems designer who has designed security for about 90 prisons throughout the country, said most escapes can be attributed to human error, rather than equipment malfunction.

"It always comes back to someone failed to follow the protocol," Oplinger said. "People get complacent. They don't use the tools they've been given - that's when bad things happen."

Oplinger advocated the importance of security equipment such as a series of interlocking doors and close-circuit televisions to monitor inmate activity, but he said guard training, especially control-room personnel, is most crucial.

The maximum-security inmates at Michigan City are kept in single cells but are allowed to leave the cells in groups several times a day for meals, work assignments or recreational activities.

During those group movements, officers are posted in areas where the prisoners pass and guards from towers oversee their movement, Schrader said.

Schrader said the tunnel system through which the Michigan City prisoners apparently escaped is secured by several mechanisms, including bars and locked doors. He suggested the men's escape took several days to plan and execute. None of the men had chance of release before 2041.