MEMPHIS, TN - More than 24 hours after escaping from a work detail, an inmate from the Shelby County Corrections Center is still on the run. Tommy Lee Hodges escaped in South Memphis on Tuesday, Jan. 31st. He's not the first inmate to make a run for it.
One of the reasons this happened is that no one expected it to happen. Not just any inmate is assigned to a work detail crew, he cannot be violent or have been in trouble while locked up and up until Tuesday, Tommy Hodges fit that bill.
“He's left the facility on many times before on work crews and we never had a problem with him at all,” said Shelby County Spokesman, Steve Shular.
Now Shelby County has a big problem.
Since December, Tommy Lee Hodges spent five days a week cleaning up the Rose Hill Cemetery in South Memphis.
“I made sure my doors were locked last night. I was afraid. It was just right over there,” said Memphis resident Shirley Evans.
“There is a policy and procedure to alert all area law enforcement to what was going on,” Shular said.
Hodges isn't the first Shelby County inmate to escape while on work detail. Ronnie Jackson was assigned to a cleaning crew at the trolley terminal facility in Downtown Memphis. In October, he walked right out of the building. Keshun Douglas escaped from Corrections Officers twice while being treated at the Med.
Both inmates were eventually caught, but it begs the question: “They didn't have no better supervision over them than that?” Memphis resident Odell Pickett asked.
At Rose Hill Cemetery, it was one supervisor for a seven man work crew. Shular says that fits with policy. Allowing an inmate to escape doesn't.
“We are doing an investigation on why he lost sight of him,” Shular said.
Hodge's disappearing act comes just three months before he would have been eligible for parole. Now he's facing as many as six more years behind bars if caught.
