Bold New Orleans Escape Calls Attention 
to Poor Jail Conditions

At around 12:30 a.m. on May 16, 2025, 10 detainees escaped from a New Orleans, Louisiana jail through a small rectangular hole in a cell wall. Images showed a metal toilet and sink torn from the wall; etched above the hole was a smiley face with its tongue out and taunting messages that read “We Innocent” and “To (sic) easy LOL.” The brazen escape from the Orleans Parish Justice Center went undetected until a routine morning headcount more than seven hours after the men had sprinted out of the facility and into a nearby neighborhood. 

By that evening, three of the escapees—Kendall Myles, 20, Robert Moody, 21, and Dkenan Dennis, 24—had been captured. In a press conference, Orleans Parish Sherriff Susan Hutson claimed that they were able to escape due to “defective locks,” and that it would have “almost impossible” for them to flee the facility without outside help. 

Three jail employees were immediately placed on leave and, in the following weeks, at least 16 people were arrested for allegedly aiding the escapees. Those arrested included Sterling Williams, 33—a jail maintenance worker who, although perhaps unaware of the plot, admitted to shutting off the water that allowed the toilet …