Missouri Prisoners Digging Escape Tunnel Were Better Behaved

For over 20 years, mentioning Missouri Prisons brought the name Donald Wyrick to mind.

Wyrick was the youngest warden of the Missouri Penitentiary and served the longest. He was the only warden to work his way up from an entry level position of guard. He was tough as nails and no-nonsense. He retired, and died in 2004.

But Wyrick was a colorful warden. 

My favorite story about Wyrick came from a friend and former state trooper who was assigned to Jefferson City. The trooper worked on a case that involved the arrest of several inmates who were digging an escape tunnel from the main prison there.

Wyrick told troopers and the local sheriff that he was aware of the tunnel digging over the previous six weeks, but allowed it to continue.

“When they were digging the tunnel, they kept out of trouble," Wyrick said, according to the trooper. "They didn’t want to do anything to get them in trouble and lockdown. In a way they were model prisoners,” Wyrick quipped, according to the trooper.

The inmates were later stopped and charged with attempted escape.

At a meeting last month, Missouri Director of Corrections George A. Lombardi, addressed residents in Creve Coeur City Hall. Lombardi was an administrator for 33 years with the Missouri Department of Corrections before being appointed director by Gov. Jay Nixon.

Back in the day, you might expect people to show up at a meeting with top prison officials and demand to know when more murderers, crooks and drug dealers would be coming off the streets and thrown into the ever-expanding prison system.

However, a number of people in the crowd were volunteers for inmate rights groups and organizations to help parolees. 

Another attendee was a woman from Arizona who was moving to Missouri to be closer to a son incarcerated in a Missouri prison. She said her son is bi-polar and needed support. 

Lombardi reminded listeners that when the courts de-institutionalized mental health facilities, the police had nowhere else to bring the mentally-ill but to jail, when they committed a crime.

“The corrections system began to take the place of mental health hospitals for some people,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi also pointed out that despite all of the rehabilitation programs there are still some hard cores in prison no one will ever crack.

“A lot of people don’t have any compassion in them, and a lot of those people are inmates,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi also spoke about a new rehab programs and spotlighted a pet program, dog training by inmates. The program began at one women’s prison where selected inmates trained service dogs for the disabled.

A new dog training program is now in 18 prisons, where inmates help socialize and train dogs from local animal shelters. The dogs are then ready for adoption by the public.

There are apparently a large number of inmates who would like to be dog trainers. To be eligible, the inmate must have a  good prison record—staying out of trouble.

Then, that reminded me of the tunnel diggers. If inmates can find something they want to do, they will stay out of trouble.

In the case of dog training, it also helps many others—from the folks running dog shelters, to the families who adopt a new pet, to man’s best friend.

State Rep. Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur) hosted the Lombardi meeting at Creve Coeur City Hall. Also attending were State Rep. Rory Ellinger (D-University City) and state Rep. Paul Quinn (D-Monroe City) and Lou Aboussie, an aide for U.S. Congressman Lacy Clay.