Inmate escapes OPP

Donald R. Tucker, 23, formerly of Harvey:


Photo: WWL.

I'm troubled by a number of things in the story reported in The Times-Picayune about the inmate who escaped from Orleans Parish Prison.

How does a prisoner escape and no one knows he's gone for hours?

Prison officials didn't know he was gone until an informant tipped off the U.S. Marshal's Service on Tuesday afternoon, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff Marlin Gusman said.

Is it possible that other prisoners might escape?

It hasn't been determined how Tucker escaped, Gusman said.

Is it really advisable or desirable to have federal prisoners housed in Orleans Parish Prison (where the local sheriff collects lucrative "rent" from the feds)?

Federal officials use the Parish Prison as one of its "contract jails" to keep federal prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, the U.S. Marshal's Service said.

Has anyone escaped from the federal tier under any previous sheriff's administration (e.g., Charles Foti)?

He said it is the first time under his administration that anyone had escaped from the federal tier.

Is Marlin Gusman really qualified and competent to continue as sheriff?

Finally, I think either the death penalty, or a life of hard labor building levees without parole would be a suitable punishment:

In the 2004 attack, Tucker and an accomplice, who has since pleaded guilty and is also awaiting sentencing, allegedly jammed a gun in the faces of a 23-year-old man and his 19-year-old girlfriend as they sat in her car at a traffic light near the off-ramp of the Crescent City Connection, police said. They commandeered the vehicle, took the couple to the Fischer public housing complex where, police said, the woman was raped and the man pistol-whipped.