Sheriff says understaffing contributed to Ca. inmate's escape

San Benito County Sheriff Eric Taylor spoke to the community Tuesday and provided an update on a man who escaped from the San Benito County Jail earlier in the morning. Daniel Lopez Zavala, 38, is an unconvicted inmate who escaped from the correctional facility around 1:50 a.m. by jumping over a barbed wire fence at the sally port while doing “work.” janitor, according to the San Benito County Sheriff's Office. He has not yet been captured. Taylor told the audience they had a right to be frustrated with Lopez Zavala's escape. Taylor said, “I'm frustrated. It's my facility. It's our staff. It's our team that's responsible for this.” He added that people would be held accountable if they were negligent in the performance of their duties. “We have a medium security facility. He was definitely in a secure area under the supervision of our staff,” Taylor said. “I don't want to be evasive, but we have an internal investigation into what happened, so this inmate may have had access to an interior fence.” Taylor added that he didn't want to make excuses for Lopez Zavala's escape, but said the county was “resource poor.” He said his staff did not have enough patrol cars to search for the suspect. They had to use unmarked cars used by office staff to facilitate searches. “We don't have enough staff. I have one employee monitoring the control room at two separate facilities because the county is not able to provide me with the appropriate staff,” Taylor said. I had a patrol team with only two deputy sheriffs. It was really difficult to define a perimeter around the facility when this happened. He went on to say that it was frustrating for him, as sheriff, to be so poor in resources. Taylor said he has raised this concern for years. “We employ the staff of the sheriff's office, a bit like a fire department. The problem is that in our sheriff's office, when the fire happens, we don't even have enough staff to operate the equipment needed to put out the fire,” Taylor said. Taylor said that it wasn't an excuse for why the unconvicted inmate escaped, but it makes it more difficult to capture him Taylor finished his thought by saying he would continue to ask the county to look at staffing levels. jails and patrols It will also seek to hold its own staff accountable if it finds any negligence on their part KSBW has reached out to the San Benito County Board of Supervisors for comment and has not yet received a response. .