Corrections to review security of Utah's jails

MANILA, Daggett County — As police search for two convicted murderers who escaped from the Daggett County Jail, the state's corrections department will review its contracts with 20 county jails to house inmates.

Utah Department of Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said executive staff decided Tuesday to look at operations in county jails and to possibly remove inmates serving lengthy prison terms.

"We're going to review the counties — their security systems and their policies and the way they operate — in all jails," Ford said.

He added that while no official decision has been made, "I think unofficially we're planning on moving inmates with a long, long, long time to serve."

Danny Martin Gallegos, 49, and Juan Carlos Diaz-Arevalo, 27, are two of the 1,350 state inmates confined to county jails due to prison overcrowding.

Reinforcements arrived Tuesday for the 20 law enforcement and corrections officers who scoured this northeastern Utah town and parts of southwestern Wyoming looking for the two men, who escaped Sunday afternoon.

Daggett County Sheriff Rick Ellsworth said officers from the Utah Department of Corrections in Draper, Salt Lake City and Gunnison, and Sweetwater County, Wyo., are working with Daggett deputies.

The additional officers came throughout the day to aid in the search, which Ellsworth said had been complemented by a Utah Department of Public Safety airplane. Members of the prison SWAT team also joined the search, in addition to two planes from Wyoming.

"We have four teams of four to five (searchers) who have been out since 8 a.m. (Tuesday), and they're re-canvassing the entire area — the valley here in Manila and the surrounding areas," the sheriff said.

Utah Department of Corrections executive director Tom Patterson traveled to Manila to observe the search effort, along with his deputy director, Mike Haddon; the director of institutional operations, Lowell Clark; and Steve Turley, the warden of the Utah State Prison in Draper.

Although Manila is a year-round community, it is largely a vacation destination with cabins that have been closed for the winter. Ellsworth said authorities searched every structure they could, paying particular attention to unoccupied buildings that might show evidence of forced entry.

"We're going through everything," Ellsworth said.