Twiggs Sheriff Launches Internal Investigation into Inmate Escape

DRY BRANCH, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum launched an internal investigation after an inmate escaped from jail Sunday.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, Mitchum thanked the Bleckley County deputies who found 45-year-old Troy Criswell.

Criswell escaped from the jail after ripping a shower head out of a wall and crawling through the hole that was left there. Mitchum believes several factors led to Criswell’s escape. He says at the time a lot of inmates were in a common area making a lot of noise, and Criswell wasn’t in plain sight when it happened.

“He was actually in the shower area, where obviously by law it has to be partitioned off, so the employees cannot sit there and watch people take showers,” said Mitchum.

Mitchum also said there might have been some negligence on the part of the jail staff, which is why he’s investigating.

This is the first escaped inmate since Mitchum took office in 2004. He says these incidents happen at jails all over the country, but he is planning to beef up security measures at the jail where he can.