Two inmates tried to escape from the Rutherford County jail, but were caught by deputies at the last minute.
It's usually quiet inside the Rutherford county jail at night. Lights out means inmates need to hit their bunks; so the staffers working below the second floor pod Sunday knew something was up.
"We received information that there was some noise in the building that was not normal," said Major Derrell Cagle.
It was a kind of a pounding or scratching. The security cameras only cover the outside of the cells. Deputies pinpointed the sound coming from inside this one and went to investigate.
They found a shattered window of reinforced glass. The two inmates, Larry Bennett Jr. and Charles Saylor, took a page out of the movie 'Shawshank Redemption' hoping to chisel their way out the of the cell.
"They had improvised tools that could be found in any home, but I can't go into any detail as not to tip other inmates," said Cagle.
The major said inmates are creative. He pointed to paper guns and sturdy ropes made of sheets confiscated from other inmates.
Bennett and Saylor didn't need a rope. Had they made a hole big enough to squeeze through, "They would have been able to jump down to a lower roof," said Cagle.
But it never happened. Bennett and Saylor made too much noise, and the two didn't realize the jail, known to some as the cube, is reinforced with a skeleton of solid steel.
Breaking a window was one thing, but cracking a steel skeleton was another.
"No one's ever escaped from here," said Cagle. Both of the inmates involved were placed in segregation on the 9th floor making any other escape attempts very difficult.
As you might expect, that failed jail break will cost both inmates more time. Both were charged with felony vandalism and attempted escape.
