Tagged: corrections

The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections has boosted its reward from $1,000 to $2,500 for a woman who escaped from the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women at St. Gabriel.

Crimestoppers also is offering $2,500 for information leading to the arrest of 33-year-old Keana Barnes, who escaped early New Year's Day while serving 25 years for manslaughter.

Barnes is from the New Orleans area. Department Secretary Jimmy Le Blanc says anyone found helping her evade capture will face consequences.

Louisiana State Penitentiary Warden Burl Cain says he'd never heard of an inmate breaking out of jail just to seek a transfer to another prison, but that's what a New Orleans offender serving time for armed robbery attempted early Friday.

Cain tells The Advocate he received a call around 12:40 a.m. at his residence about a prison break at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel.

A 26-year-old man who escaped from the St. Tammany Parish jail has been arrested along with his girlfriend in a hotel in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Authorities say Anthony Lance Alexius walked away from his work detail in the kitchen of the parish jail at approximately 11:15 a.m. Sunday.

Officials believe he was picked up by Melissa Ann Beck outside the kitchen.

Alexius and Beck were arrested without incident Sunday night and were booked by Hattiesburg police as fugitives.

The new attorneys for the only Angola inmate still facing trial in the 1999 beating and stabbing death of a prison security officer told a state judge they probably will file a motion to postpone their client's trial.

The Advocate reports the trial for Barry Edge, who already is serving a life sentence for second-degree murder, is scheduled to begin Jan. 17.

Defense attorney Steve Lemoine told retired Orleans Parish Judge Jerome M. Winsberg Friday that he sees problems in getting the case together.