Holland Warned Of Cavalcante Escape Plan Month Before It Happened — Chester County Commissioner Joshua Maxwell implied, Sept. 20, that somehow Chesco prison’s former warden, Ronald M. Phillips, was somehow to blame for the conditions that led to multiple-murderer Danelo Cavalcante Aug. 31 escape.
Phillips, who started at the prison in 1983 and moved up the ranks to top job, was placed on administrative leave in July, allegedly due to the May escape by o Igor Vidra Bolte. He officially retired the day before Cavalcante’s break out.
Taking over as interim warden was Howard Holland. He had been Downingtown police chief, while Maxwell served as the borough’s mayor.
Being a police chief does not make one skilled in running a prison. It has now been revealed that a prison officer warned had warned his superiors that Cavalcante was planning an escape a month before it happened.
“I am just sending this cause I don’t want this to come back on us or [Officer] Hernandez in anyway.He noted back in July that this inmate was planning an escape,” Chester County Prison Sgt. Jerry Beavers said in an email to Cpt. Harry Griswold several hours after the escape on Aug. 31.
The document had been obtained via a right-to-know request by ABCNews.
The present County Board of Commissioners had allowed the prison to become woefully understaffed — 60 of 300 positions were vacant — before Phillips was forced out.
Holland Warned Of Cavalcante Escape Plan Month Before It Happened