LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. (AP) — Louisiana authorities say all eight inmates who escaped from a rural jail were captured less than 24 hours after they were reported missing.
Officials have not said how the escape unfolded from the Riverbend Detention Center in Lake Providence, located in East Carroll Parish — a rural area that borders Arkansas and Mississippi — before they were reported missing at 1:20 a.m. Friday.
They have also not detailed how each of the men were captured.
The arrests were announced in three batches from Friday afternoon until early Saturday morning and involved several federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, including the police department in Yazoo City, Mississippi, a nearly two-hour drive from the jail.
Neither state police nor the East Carroll Parish Sheriff’s Office immediately returned calls Saturday from The Associated Press.
The inmates ranged in age from 19 to 31. Authorities said all of them were considered violent offenders. Court records said the escapees were being held on charges that included murder, aggravated assault with a firearm and aggravated flight from an officer.
East Carroll Parish is in part of Louisiana that was hard hit by power outages following the deadly winter storm that moved across the U.S. this week. More than one-fourth of the customers in the parish were still without power as of Saturday morning, according to Poweroutage.us.
Louisiana has had a run of bold jail escapes in the past year.
Last year in Louisiana, 10 inmates broke out of a New Orleans jail after crawling through a hole behind a toilet. It wasn’t until five months later that all of them were captured following a search that spanned multiple states.
In December, three inmates escaped from a different Louisiana jail after removing concrete blocks from a deteriorating wall.