The prison is investigating the error and questioning staff members
By Allison Steele
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Shamir Robinson was released from jail last month, just in time for the holidays. The only problem was, it was by accident.
After a judge sentenced Robinson, 21, to time served on a robbery charge on Dec. 20, prison officials failed to notice a court order that should have kept Robinson in the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on pending charges in a 2009 robbery and assault case, said Robert Eskind, Philadelphia prisons spokesman. Robinson walked away a free man.
The mistake was not discovered until two weeks later, when Robinson showed up Monday in court for a trial that had been scheduled on the 2009 charges. When Robinson’s court-appointed attorney and others realized Robinson should not have been out of prison, Robinson “disappeared,” Eskind said.
A judge has since issued a bench warrant for Robinson, of the city’s Nicetown section. He is wanted on the charges of robbery and aggravated assault stemming from the 2009 case.
“The bottom line is, we hope he will turn himself in,” Eskind said.
The prison is investigating the error and questioning staff members, Eskind said.
Robinson had been held at Curran-Fromhold, on State Road in the Northeast, since his arrest in May on robbery charges. On Dec. 20, Common Pleas Court Judge Peter F. Rogers sentenced him to time served and probation after Robinson pleaded guilty to robbery.
A court order had already been issued to revoke bail for Robinson on the 2009 case and continue holding him in prison, but prison officials did not realize it.
Two corrections officers and a supervisor would have typically been required to review the file before Robinson’s release, Eskind said. “I don’t know how it is that this was overlooked,” he said.
Robinson has been in jail four times since turning 18, records show.
The mistaken release is the third time in a little more than a year in which a prisoner has gotten out of Curran-Fromhold.
On Oct. 12, 22-year-old Kevin Turner escaped and began an armed-robbery spree that resulted in the murder of Bill Glatz, owner of William Glatz Jewelers, as well as Turner’s own death.
On Thanksgiving 2009, accused murderer Oscar Alvarado walked out of the prison during visiting hours, after changing to street clothes. He was captured about two weeks later and returned to the prison.