As each one of us -- every member of the Chester County community -- slowly begins to sift through the smoldering aftermath of the two-weeks when a convicted murderer attempted to slither his way to freedom past our homes and neighborhoods, the magnitude of Danelo Cavalcante’s escape from the Chester County Prison on Aug. 31 remains on the scale of an earthquake. The sky above us is still clouded with ash.

In the two weeks since he was captured in northern Chester County on Sept. 13, the sediment of memory and emotions from Cavalcante’s presence on the periphery of our lives still lingers, mostly in anger and targeted to you, the county officials – appointed and elected – who are charged with the responsibility to keep us safe. On three occasions in the last week, you have given us the public forum to express this anger – on Sept. 18 and 20 at the Pocopson Elementary School and on Sept. 20 at your meeting – and each time, the veracity of our collective voices has articulated our rage and appointed you – the members of the Chester County Prison Board – as the chief cause.

No; none of you assisted in Cavalcante’s now infamous crabwalk up the walls of the prison. None of you cut the reinforced razor wires -- placed there after Igor Nolte’s escape in May – in an effort to provide Cavalcante with assistance. True to the altruistic mission of the Chester County Prison Board, every one of you is a proven leader in this community and deserves accolades for your singular duties. And yet, the nightmare of Danelo Cavalcante, one that will linger in our minds for quite some time, lay at your feet. Somehow, the prison has a deficit of 58 correctional officers but despite those exceedingly low numbers, the prison continues to accept murderers and rapists. 

Somehow, there was only one officer operating the cell tower at the time of Cavalcante’s escape. Somehow, despite the public’s outcry to do so, the prison no longer has a canine unit – which ultimately proved invaluable in the capture of Cavalcante. 

Somehow, it took the escape of a convicted murderer – and the shock waves of embarrassment that have come from it – for your board to finally approve the construction of a project estimated between $2.5 and $3.5 million that will fully enclose the eight exercise areas at the prison. 

Somehow, the long menu of requests by Acting Warden Howard Holland at your Sept. 20 meeting to improve the security at the prison – while prudent and likely very effective – seem too late in coming, like a bandage applied to an already permanent wound. 

Beginning at the Sept. 13 press conference that gave details on Cavalcante’s capture and over the course of the last two weeks, you continue to heap deserved praise on the more than 500 law enforcement officials – local, state and national – who, under the leadership of Lt. Col. George Blevins brought Cavalcante to justice. Tucked within the deep recesses of our collective conscience, however, is the firm knowledge that the people of Chester County would have been spared this 14-day manhunt if stricter security regulations and infrastructure at the prison had already been in place.

It is time for the Chester County Prison Board to end its apology tour. None of us have the patience to sit through another “We feel your pain” speech. Instead, use these coming months to provide a sturdy platform for your acting warden to implement every one of his initiatives to make Chester County Prison, in words he used at a town hall meeting last week, “the best prison in the State of Pennsylvania.” 

While Howard Holland may be new to the Chester County Prison, he is not new to law enforcement or to the modern innovations of security, and while it is perhaps preliminary to say so, the short- and long-term visions he expressed at your meeting last week are on point to pull a tired and staggeringly inefficient prison into the new century.