Inside a prison transport: A firsthand look

FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — As investigators spent another night searching for the two inmates who gunned down two corrections officers in Putnam County, law enforcement agencies across the state are taking precautions to make sure something similar doesn't happen to them.

“My heart goes out to the families, to the agencies, but we're doing what we can to make sure this does not happen to us,” Lt. Chevron Forehand with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office told Channel 2’s Nicole Carr.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide are searching for inmates Ricky Dubose and Donnie Rowe. Forehand told Carr that safety remains a top priority.

“It's a brotherhood. Anytime you lose an officer, you think about what could we do differently?” Forehand said.

In the last two weeks, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office prison transport unit updated its own security measures.

“Now we have canine that escorts our bus. We have the apprehension dogs. That way if it's that particular day that they want to do it (try to escape), we have the apprehension dog that are going to get them right then."

Forehand allowed Carr on a transport bus similar in size to the one the escaped inmates rode Tuesday morning.

Different agencies have different resources to equip their vans. Most in the Fulton County fleet have cameras, and prisoners are searched and shackled at the waist and ankles.

Larger, more serious offenders are seated in the back, and each section is cut off by a different set of cages.

“We don’t come to play. We are always security-minded when we come to do what we have to do,” Forehand said. “I just make sure that I ensure my officers’ safety first. We going home the same way we left.”

The reward for information leading to the capture of those inmates on the run has risen to $115,000.

Cox Media Group