Furlough Foul-Ups
Last Monday, a state inmate was released from the medium-security state lock-up in Hudson, Columbia County. He was supposed to go for a job interview.
Instead, the furloughed inmate, Dwight Singletary, got a gun, traveled to Troy and shot an innocent woman. Thankfully, she is expected to recover from her injuries.
The incident happened just before the July 4 holiday, so many missed the news. But for those who stayed local, there was quite a bit of head-scratching and questioning going on. Questions like: We have a program where inmates just get let out of prison before their release? With no escort or monitoring? Let out from medium security prisons? Huh?
The lack of answers and the lack of justification from state officials is also troubling. How Singletary got the gun is still unexplained. Did he arrangement to pick-up the gun via communications in prison. How did he get to Troy, and did he have accomplices? Are other arrests pending?
The state doesn’t seem to have problems monitoring certain state officials like Senator Joe Bruno. But not being able to keep track of state inmates? That’s a problem.
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