Police received no credible tips that Morley remained in the Marion area
Tennessee inmate Jacob Morley escaped late Sunday night from the Northwest Correctional Complex near Tiptonville, slipping through a fence in his prison clothes and walking to a nearby farm, authorities said. He stole a truck there and was last known to be in Marion, Illinois, on Tuesday, when he abandoned the vehicle behind a strip mall about 120 miles north of the lockup.
Marion Police Chief David Fitts said police had received no credible tips that Morley remained in the Marion area or reports of other vehicles that had gone missing in the city since Tuesday. Police have been trying to determine where Morley went after abandoning the truck.
Authorities described Morley as a white man, 28, who stands 5 feet 11 inches, weighs 240 pounds, and has brown hair and green eyes.
Morley is serving a life sentence for killing co-worker Cody Birchfield in 2022. Birchfield’s body was found in a box under Morley’s home after he had been missing for a few weeks. The two lived in Carter County in eastern Tennessee.
The escape came weeks after the failed execution of Christa Pike. Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada announced his resignation after less than three years on the job following the execution last month.
State Sen. Tom Hatcher, a Republican from Blount County and chairman of a legislative subcommittee looking into the prison system, said the resignation couldn’t come soon enough. “We need new leadership,” Hatcher said. “We’re doing oversight work behind the scenes about several of our prisons. We’re just waiting to see who our next governor will be and who is the next commissioner.”
Hatcher said understaffing was a major problem and noted that Strada did not attend the subcommittee’s last oversight meeting, held days before Pike’s execution date. During a hearing, prison officials said the agency had 470 open jobs among a 6,000-person workforce. They also warned that a 2022 law requiring inmates to serve more of their sentences was increasing prison populations and could lead to overcrowding.
A prison spokesperson said the agency was not commenting at this time. Hatcher said prison leadership was not transparent about problems and did not accept oversight well, even though the problems repeat themselves. “Until we get someone who wants to look at all of this, we’re going to keep having problems,” he said.
The Northwest Correctional Complex, an isolated prison about 90 miles from Memphis, Tennessee, has had several violent attacks involving inmates and employees in recent years. District Attorney Danny H. Goodman Jr. is overseeing the prosecution of 19 cases stemming from indictments this summer at the complex. The cases include five inmates killed behind bars and assaults against staff and inmates. Former prison employees charged with aggravated assault are among the people named in 50 indictments.
Goodman said no evidence showed Morley was involved in any of those attacks. He suspected understaffing could have contributed to the escape or violence but said he had no proof. “There is a huge shortage of staff there,” Goodman said. “The ones that are there, they have to work so much. It’s not unusual for them to have to work double shifts.”
Goodman also said there was no evidence yet that anyone helped Morley escape and that the investigation was ongoing. Authorities had not determined Morley’s whereabouts as of Wednesday.