More Clovis Jail Employees Could Lose Jobs Over Prisoner Escape

Curry County Manager Lance Pyle says is moving to fire three more jail employees and discipline a fourth for lapses that led to a prisoner escape last week.

A jail sergeant has already lost his job.

Pyle called the events leading up to the Nov. 13 escape of maximum-security prisoner Narcizo Soto Jr. a ‘tremendous breech.”

He tells the Clovis News Journal that an investigation showed Soto was allowed to work on a floor cleaning crew in the jail’s unsecured administrative offices for days before he bolted out an unlocked door.

It is against policy for maximum security inmates to work outside their housing area.

But several high-ranking jail officers knew of Soto’s assignment and failed to stop it.

Clovis is about 290 miles northeast of Las Cruces.