Douglas Alward collected the tools that helped him get over three fences, one of them electrified, to escape from Sterling Correctional Facility last month, corrections officials said at a community meeting in Sterling on Tuesday night.
“I think somebody dropped the ball,” Sterling resident Kristi Helbert said at the meeting, attended by 9News.
Three days after his Aug. 22 escape, Alward, 48, surrendered near Yuma, about 45 miles southeast of the prison. He had taken a woman hostage in her home, but she was released unharmed.
“We apologize for what took place the night of the escape, the fact that it could happen, and once again we have made a 100 percent commitment to addressing every issue,” state prisons director Ari Zavaras told a crowd of about 50.
Officials would not say what items Alward used or how he obtained them, citing security.
He had escaped from three other Colorado prisons and faces new charges for this escape.
