By Monica Vaughan
Appeal-Democrat
MARYSVILLE, Calif. -- An inmate escaped from Sutter County Jail early Wednesday by running away from a group of trusties being escorted by a correctional officer between buildings.
“He just bolted,” said Sheriff J. Paul Parker on Wednesday evening.
Daniel Steel Duncan, 24, of Yuba City, was in custody for violation of probation and was scheduled for release on April 14. Parker said Duncan was charged with stealing from a car and possession of drugs and had been in jail “many times for minor things, nothing violent.”
Duncan was walking with four other trusties and one correctional officer from the minimum security facility to the kitchen of the main jail around 3 a.m. for breakfast duty when he ran away.
A trusty is a person that is in jail for a nonviolent crime with a short amount of time on their sentence.
Parker said the correctional officer did not want to leave the other trusties unattended and did not chase Duncan.
“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and this is the first time this has happened,” Parker said.
Duncan’s minimum security privileges have been suspended and he will be placed in the maximum security unit upon his return to custody, Parker said in a written statement.
Another inmate escaped from the jail in 2012. Video surveillance showed Jonathan Pattee scaling a 14-foot fence topped with barbed wire and crossing over at a gate in the fence where a fire truck could get into the jail. Pattee turned himself in after a few days, apparently frustrated because law enforcement had visited every place he had gone to escape.
In 2011, Jeremy Lee Grove was being detained on suspicion of a minor drug offense when he scaled a chain-link fence topped with razor wire. He was caught and arrested by Yuba City police a few days after the escape.
To avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s runaway, Parker said “we’ll have to figure out something,” such as chaining the inmates when walking between facilities. “Every time you identify a new weakness in your policy, you adapt and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Part of the problem, he said, is the jail. “It’s like a nice house with a bunch of add-ons.”
Escaped inmate
WHO: Daniel Steel Duncan.
DESCRIPTION: White male, age 24, stands 5-8, weights 165 pounds, brown hair, green eyes.
He was last seen wearing inmate clothing, a green shirt and green and white striped pants.
INFORMATION: Anyone with information is asked to call the Sutter County Sheriff’s Department at 822-7307.