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6 'dangerous' inmates escape Joliet prison

JOLIET -- Six "extremely dangerous" inmates, including three murderers, escaped from the maximum security Joliet Correctional Center early Sunday morning, apparently by cutting through metal bars, authorities said. One of the six, Tommy Munoz, 22, was captured on Chicago's Southwest Side late in the afternoon, said Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Nic Howell.

State police and local law enforcement agencies searching for the men were assisted by 100 corrections officers trained to deal with escapes. "We've called off the search with the airplane and the dog," state police Trooper Thomas Miller said at about 2 p.m. "Everything petered out. It appears they split up."

Prison authorities reported the escape to state police at 7:56 a.m., police and prison officials said.

But reports of when the men escaped changed over the course of the day. State police originally reported the men were discovered missing at 4:55 a.m. and Howell originally confirmed that time.

Later Howell said the men were accounted for at 4:55 a.m. and an inmate count did not come up short until 7 a.m. At 7:30 a.m., the missing inmates were identified, Howell said, and state police were called about 20 minutes later.

The men escaped from segregation cells, where they were kept because of disciplinary problems, he said. Four of the men were doubled up, two to a cell, and the other two men were each in their own cell.

The inmates had to cut through bars on the cells, break a window, cut through bars outside the window and cross a fence to get away, he said. "Obviously, this is a breach of security," Howell said of the escape. "They shouldn't have had the materials to be able to cut with, and should not have been able to cut like this without being noticed."

The prison houses 1,300 inmates, 500 more than it was built to hold, and is one of the state's four maximum security facilities and one of two in Joliet. The other in Joliet is Stateville Correctional Center.

Escapees still at large were identified as:

* Daniel Johnson, 24, of Buru, Tenn., white male, 5-foot-9, 138 pounds, dark brown hair and brown eyes, imprisoned for murder.

* James F. Allen, 40, of Chicago, black male, 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, black hair, brown eyes, imprisoned for three murders.

* Dave Rodriguez, 21, of Chicago, 5-foot-8, 152 pounds, black hair, brown eyes, dark complexion, goatee beard, imprisoned for murder.

* Terry W. Colburn, 21, of Bloom- ington, white male, 5-foot-6, 133 pounds, shoulder-length light brown hair, mustache, green eyes, imprisoned for burglary.

*Ronald Roach, in his 20s, of Wyoming, Ill., white male, 5-foot-9, 150 pounds, dark hair and beard, imprisoned for burglary.

They were likely to have been dressed in dark blue coats, blue trousers or jeans, tennis shoes or boots and baseball caps or blue knit caps, Howell said.