/Remember the guy who escaped from Parchman It was actually a different guy Now the misidentified man’s mother fears retaliation

Remember the guy who escaped from Parchman It was actually a different guy Now the misidentified man’s mother fears retaliation

The original post was made public at 9:33 am Oct. 5. It included two mugshots from Matthew Craig McKamey. McKamey is the prisoner who escaped Unit 30 at Mississippi State Penitentiary on that day. McKamey didn’t escape the unit that morning. MDOC did not inform the public about the identity of McKamey’s escapee. According to Mississippi Today, it took Corrections Agency employees nearly 90 minutes for them to find the missing person from Unit 30 D. They repeatedly misidentified McKamey, the escapee, in an incident report. This report shows that employees failed to identify the missing person correctly during recounts due to a lack in communication. Grace Fisher, MDOC communications director, did not return calls or answer emailed questions about this story. According to Barbara Huskey’s incident report, here is what happened on October 5. These times are approximate. By the afternoon McKamey’s escape was announced to the public via Facebook, the original post had been changed six times. The post’s edit history shows that it was modified to make McKamey’s escape more clear. Darrie Price, the missing prisoner, is not mentioned in any revisions. The incident report doesn’t detail the actions taken by employees after Price’s disappearance was discovered. According to an online database, Price is currently in custody. He was transferred to Parchman’s Unit 29 Oct. 7. Price is currently serving 15 years for burglary and possession with stolen property convictions he received in Bolivar County, 2017. MDOC could not confirm that Price is currently in administrative segregation. According to agency policy, inmates can be moved to administrative segregation (also known as solitary confinement) after an attempted escape. According to agency records, McKamey was transferred to Unit 29 on October 9. McKamey is currently serving a life sentence in Harrison County for his capital murder conviction from 2013. McKamey’s mother, Cathy Nance said that McKamey was later placed in a lockdown tank by prison staff and interrogated about Price’s escape. Nance learned that McKamey was interrogated twice through conversations with her son, and other members of the unit. Nance sent Mississippi Today an email stating that her son would do the work, but that he won’t be treated unfairly by the system. Nance later clarified that her son was in the bathroom during emergency counts. This led to employees marking him as missing. Nance maintains that there are eyewitnesses to this event. His mother stated that McKamey is currently being held in solitary confinement. McKamey’s family repeatedly called the prison to try to advocate for him. Nance stated that they are concerned about his safety and mental health. “We can’t get anyone on the phone to return calls or talk to someone with some information. MDOC reported that Parchman had a 42 percent staffing vacancy rate at the start of the year. This level of understaffing can lead to a system that is vulnerable to failure in such incidents as this, according to Paloma Wu, an advocate with the Southern Poverty Law Center (Jackson). Wu stated that the incident raises legitimate questions about whether these counts actually took place. Emmitt Sparkman (a former Parchman superintendent, who retired in 2016 from MDOC), said that accurate counts are necessary to ensure that prisoners are located where they should be. “Count is the most important thing to do to make sure everyone’s there,” he stated. This is the seventh escapee MDOC has identified so far in this year’s calendar. Each of the previous escapees were found within a matter of days. A conviction for felony escape can result in a maximum five-year sentence.