By Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The building construction superintendent at the Mansfield Correctional Institution is the fourth employee to be fired in connection with the July 3 escape by an inmate.
James Miracle, 42, was fired Friday for falsifying tool control forms, forging a signature, and failing to control tools “which compromised or undermined the security of the institution.” He was paid $54,668 annually and had been a state employee for 18 years.
James David Myers, an inmate maintenance worker at the prison, used a pickax to break into a storage shed and get three ladders which he used to scale three security fences at the Mansfield prison on July 3. Myers was recaptured the next day when a customer spotted him at the Olivesburg General Store about eight miles from the prison. He went to prison in 2010 on kidnapping, rape, and aggravated burglary charges in Summit County.
Prison officials earlier this year placed Miracle and three other employees on paid administrative leave for not properly counting work crews and improperly responding to alarms when Myers escaped. The prison security chief, a maintenance worker, and corrections officer were fired last month in connection with Myers’ escape.