Now that suspected murderer Carlos Rodriguez is back behind bars, Sheriff Jack Strain is focusing his attention on making sure Rodriguez and the other 1,200 prisoners who call the St. Tammany Parish Jail home, stay there.

Strain said as sheriff, he takes full responsibility for Rodriguez’s escape Feb. 20, but he lays much of the blame not on his men but on the structure in which they work.

He said prisoners spend much of their time trying to figure out ways to beat the structure, and he as the sheriff over the jail, must trust that structure is as secure as possible. Strain meet experts with Robert Lambert and Associates, the architectural firm who designed the section of the jail Rodriguez was held in, on Friday.

This is the second break in at the jail in less than a year, and Strain said he wants answers.

He has requested the experts review the structure to identify any other weaknesses not already brought to light by the two breakouts.

“I want to know any potential weak points in the jail,” Strain said. “They designed and built the jail. They understand it better than I do as a physical structure.”

Rodriguez was able to get out of the jail by getting through a ceiling tile, crawling through a crawlspace and breaking through a concrete wall. Once outside the building he used a twisted bed sheet to get over the razor wire and fled in a waiting car.

Strain has asked the engineers to review the ceiling and to report back to him as soon as possible.

He said he already knows the ceiling tiles is a weak point that needs to be addresses, as another inmate used the same method to escape from a jail last year in Livingston Parish that has the same style ceiling.

Strain is revealing little information about what he knows concerning how Rodriguez was able to lift the tile, which Strain said is very large and heavy; as well as how he was able to defeat what was supposed to be a solid concrete wall in the crawl space above the ceiling.

His only comment about the wall was “when told that a solid cement wall is solid you have to believe that.”

He said he must trust that the experts who designed the jail knew what they were doing.

“You have to depend that people who are paid millions of dollars and are trained in that field know what they are doing,” he said.

Since Rodriguez’s escape, Strain has reorganized the staff at the jail and re-evaluated how the jail is manned.

The same shift of officers were on duty this time as was on duty last June when four prisoners took advantage of inadequate screws and used a hacksaw smuggled into the facility and broke out of a window in the jail.

But, he said, that even with guards, lights and cameras, the jailers really have to depend on the jail construction to keep in the prisoners. The sheriff said he expects to hear back from the experts by the end of this week.

When the parish had the new section of jail built, Lambert designed it for a particular staffing plan, and Strain said he has been using that recommended staffing, which puts one officer overseeing 200 prisoners using video screens.

Strain said there was a deputy monitoring Rodriguez’s dorm and that deputy reportedly did not see the suspected murderer making his escape.

This, Strain said is where “human error” played a part in the incident.

But, he said his staffing abilities are limited by his jail budget, which he has repeatedly stated does not adequately fund the jail.

“I have stated in the past that jail has the potential to be our worse nightmare,” Strain said.

He said this most recent break out is what he feared would happen.

“I hope this will bring us all to the table,” Strain said, he hopes to now meet again with the Parish Council to discuss additional funding for the jail.