A prisoner escaped “from the area” of the Whalley Avenue jail Wednesday morning — sending five schools into a temporary lockdown until the man was apprehended by city and state police.
The New Haven Police Department (NHPD) posted on the social media site X at 11:46 a.m., indicating that the man had been caught.
City police helped state police “with apprehending a prisoner who escaped from the area of the Whalley Correctional Center,” that social media post reads. “He is now back in custody. School lockdowns were in relation to this, they should be lifted shortly.” City police directed further inquiries on this matter to state police.
A state police spokesperson confirmed in a 12:08 p.m. email that “the subject has been located and is in custody.” They said they’d release more information later.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent that five schools, including Hillhouse, “were placed temporarily on partial lockdown due to police activity in the neighborhood.” He said the lockdown was lifted after about 30 minutes.
“This seems like a very, very rare occurrence,” said Mayor Justin Elicker outside police headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. He said that the NHPD will meet with state police and the state Department of Correction to go over the incident.
When asked by NBC Connecticut’s Kyle Jones about proposed legislation to study the possibility of moving the jail out of New Haven, Elicker said he still supports the bill.
“The incident today is one small example of why it is not appropriate for a jail to be in a city,” Elicker said.