'Unprecedented:' Prisoner who rappelled down building was latest of four recent escapes.

Patrick Thomas, 32, escaped from the Talbert House late Sunday afternoon by tunneling through drywall, breaking a window and rappelling down the side of the building using tied-together bedsheets, security camera footage shows.

He is one of four prisoners to escape Hamilton County Sheriff's Office custody in the past month. This is "unprecedented in the history of the Sheriff's Office," Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said.

She said Thomas is the only one of the four escapees still at-large. He was originally arrested on three charges: drug abuse, failure to comply with officers and a pedestrian violation. He also has a warrant out from Kenton County, Kentucky, for possessing a firearm under disability.

The other recently escaped prisoners include Melissa Cordell, George Bridewell and James Johnson.

Cordell, 37, escaped the Hamilton County Justice Center with other individuals who were officially being released June 8. She was detained on misdemeanor theft and forgery charges.

"She was in the intake area, was still in plain clothes and was able to mingle in with some of the other inmates who had been dressed out for release," McGuffey said.

Cordell was back in custody the following day.

Bridewell, 47, escaped sheriff's custody June 20. He was originally arrested on drug possession charges. He was also in the intake area at the time of his escape and in civilian clothes. McGuffey said Bridewell is now back in custody at the Hamilton County Justice Center.

Johnson, 44, escaped from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center while in police custody Sunday morning. He was undergoing treatment at the time of his escape and had been arrested on drug possession and falsification charges. Sheriff's Office deputies captured him and brought him back into custody on Monday, McGuffey said.

These individuals, including Thomas, now face felony escape charges on top of their original charges and could be sentenced to possible prison time, McGuffey said.

Patrick Thomas is still at large

Thomas escaped custody where he was being housed, at the Talbert House on Reading Road, 12 hours after Johnson's escape on Sunday. The Talbert House is a nonprofit partner with the Sheriff's Office that provides drug and alcohol addiction recovery services to private clients and county prisoners.

Thomas first broke a hole through some drywall and concealed the hole with a locker and a bed, McGuffey said. On Sunday, when the officer went to get dinner for the prisoners, Thomas crawled through that drywall to a third-floor office and then broke out a window with a chair to escape.

McGuffey said Talbert House is built for minimum- to medium-security prisoners. Most windows at the facility have metal mesh screens, but this one did not because it was seen as "inaccessible" to prisoners, McGuffey said.

Once the window was broken, Thomas used bedsheets he had tied together to rappel down the side of the Talbert House and dropped down to Reading Road in front of passing cars. From the video, McGuffey said, it's likely Thomas injured himself when he let go of the bedsheet and fell 10 to 15 feet down to the sidewalk.

"So obviously this was premeditated, something he had planned," McGuffey said, referencing the tied-together bedsheets.

A Cincinnati Police Department K9 tracked his last known direction on Reading Road but was unable to locate him. Officials say Thomas should be considered dangerous.

Anyone with information on Thomas should call the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office at 513-825-1500 or Crime Stoppers at 513-352-3040.

Changes coming to Sheriff's Office

McGuffey said several changes are coming to Hamilton County's "aging jail" as a result of these recent escapes, including the installation of plexiglass, locks and newer cameras. They also will change the criteria that allow prisoners to be housed at Talbert House.

The department also is changing some inmate procedures, particularly when prisoners are being officially released. There will be no more than five releases each day, McGuffey said. They have the capacity to release 80 prisoners per day, though typically it's five or more on any given day. That number is now capped.

McGuffey commented on the turnover in her staff, which is now largely young and inexperienced. She said she does not believe the younger staff violated any policies but "it's a matter of tenure and maturity."

"We have hired a tremendous amount of new, young officers. We've had a lot of officers retiring," McGuffey said. "That makes for a different level of surveillance and a different level of decision-making. So we're training those officers. We're getting them retrained.

"I do support the officers. They're young men and women who I do believe are trying their best," she said.

McGuffey said prisoners have escaped from the justice center and Talbert House in previous years, under previous sheriffs, though they are unusual.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Hamilton County sheriff says four escapes in one month is 'unprecedented'