A 21-year-old man will be charged for helping transport two men who escaped from a Philly jail last week, authorities say

A 21-year-old man is expected to be charged with helping secure transportation for two prisoners who escaped from a Philadelphia jail last week, authorities said Monday.

Michael Abrams was expected to face charges including escape, hindering apprehension, and conspiracy, police said.

Additional details about his alleged role in the crime were not immediately available. Deputy Police Commissioner Frank Vanore said Abrams was arrested Monday in Berwyn and was an “associate” of one of the escapees: 18-year-old Ameen Hurst, who was jailed while awaiting trial for four homicides and other crimes before he broke out alongside Nasir Grant, 24.

Vanore declined to provide other specifics about how Abrams allegedly aided in the jailbreak, but said investigators believe Abrams was “in communication with” Hurst and Grant as they escaped and tried to evade capture.

Grant, who was jailed on gun and drug offenses, was recaptured Thursday night in North Philadelphia and subsequently arraigned on a new count of escape. He was being held in a Bucks County jail on $10 million bail, court records show.

Hurst, meanwhile, remained missing Monday as U.S. Marshals continue to search for him.

Court records show Abrams, at the time of the escape, was free on unsecured bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing for a gun and drug case that was first filed last year. Abrams and two other men were accused of possessing crack cocaine and marijuana in West Philadelphia last fall, records say, and Abrams also allegedly carried a gun without a license. The preliminary hearing is scheduled for later this month, court records say.

Abrams is the third person in less than a week to be criminally charged and accused of helping Hurst and Grant break out of the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center on May 7.

On Thursday, authorities said 21-year-old Xianni Stallings put Hurst in touch with a potential getaway driver on recorded jail calls just hours before the breakout happened. And Friday, Jose Alberto Flores-Huerta, 35 — incarcerated for allegedly participating in a fatal beating outside Pat’s King of Steaks in 2021 — was accused of serving as a lookout inside the facility as the escape unfolded.

Both were jailed on charges including escape. Flores-Huerta was ineligible for bail due to his pending murder charge, and Stallings is being held as prosecutors seek to have her bail raised from $500,000, court records show.

Authorities have said Grant and Hurst sneaked out through a hole in a chain-link fence around 8:30 p.m. May 7. Their absence was not detected by staff members for another 19 hours, despite the fact that three body counts took place in the jail over that time frame.

The breakout came after prisoners, advocates, and union officials had warned for years of a growing crisis at the city’s jails, where nearly 4,400 people are held. The union representing officers recently announced a vote of no confidence in Prisons Commissioner Blanche Carney, saying the prisons are about 40% short of a full staffing complement.

Carney, meanwhile, has said investigations are seeking to uncover how the escape happened and why it went undetected for so long. “We are leaving no stone unturned in order to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said in a statement late last week.

Grant was arrested by U.S. Marshals late Thursday night, when agents set up surveillance around the 2400 block of West Cambria Street, saw someone get into a car, and followed it to the 2800 block of Dauphin Street.

Marshals pulled the car over and found Grant in the passenger seat, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Clark, who added that Grant had been wearing women’s Muslim clothing as a disguise, including a head covering that obscured his face.

As for Hurst, authorities ask that anyone with information about his whereabouts call 911, the U.S. Marshals Service at 800-336-0102, or Philadelphia Police at 215-686-TIPS (8477). Officials were offering a reward of as much as $25,000 for his capture.

Staff writer Ellie Rushing contributed to this article.