A 23-year-old inmate at the Kane County Adult Correction Center tried to escape this week by hiding in the facility’s gym, then scaling a wall to kick out a plexiglass window.
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The attempted breakout was the third reported this year at the 302-bed jail, which held 366 prisoners as of Thursday.
“Attempted escapes are part of the jail business,” said Eugene Buldak, corrections director for the Kane County sheriff’s office. “It’s natural; the inmates don’t want to be here.”
Charged with felony counts of attempted escape and criminal damage to property was Carlos A. Contreras, of 308 Claim St., Aurora.
Contreras was being held at the jail on a $500,000 bond from a Jan. 24 arrest in Aurora on charges of home invasion and aggravated criminal sexual assault.
Buldak said two maintenance workers foiled Contreras’ alleged plot when they walked into the gym at 11:50 a.m. Monday and saw him 30 feet up the wall trying to remove a shattered pane.
Contreras was one of about a dozen maximum-security inmates using the jail gymnasium and was supposed to be returned to his cell by 11:10 a.m., Buldak said.
The deputy and gym supervisor in charge that morning failed to take a proper head count after the exercise period, Buldak said. The employees were disciplined, he said, declining to identify either of the men or the nature of the disciplinary action.
In May, three inmates had cut out a cell window before being interrupted when an anonymous caller tipped off deputies. An attempt by three other inmates was reported in February.
The last successful escape occurred in 1992, but the inmates were caught 40 minutes after their breakout.