Even after an inmate escape in their backyard, neighbors say Philly jail is ‘easy enough to ignore’

Residents in the Holmesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia generally went about their Friday business as usual as the city searched for an inmate who escaped from the jail in their backyard.

“We ain’t going anywhere,” said Brian Teesdale, 54, who lives a mile from the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, where two inmates escaped Sunday.

Nasir Grant, 24, and Ameen Hurst, 18, set off a citywide search after they climbed multiple fences, including a chain link fence with a hole cut out. It was nearly 19 hours before authorities noticed their absence.

Grant was taken into custody Thursday night. Hurst, accused of committing four homicides, has not been found.

Faith that Hurst would be detected soon enough varied. Terence McLaughlin, 63, was a bit skeptical of a fast resolution to the saga and figured Hurst was “already in Florida.” Besides, he said, he could take care of himself.

“I’m not going down without a fight,” he said with a laugh.

Others suspected it was only a matter of time before Hurst got caught.

Either way, residents weren’t much concerned about their safety because of the jailbreak. They mainly had good things to say about Holmesburg. They described the neighborhood as beautiful, working class, and in the midst of change with younger families moving in, livening up blocks with children riding tricycles in the summer. There’s some crime, they said, notably cars getting broken into but Teesdale and others said they didn’t feel the need to be cooped up at home.

Teesdale himself, an almost 30-year resident of the neighborhood, was out gardening with one of his eight grandkids Friday. Across the street, more children played in their front yard as their mother swept the steps.

“It’s easy enough to ignore [the jail],” Teesdale said. “It’s not like every day someone is getting out of there.”

Residents said that it helps that State Road, an active thoroughfare that’s home to the jail and some auto shops, acts as a divider between the facility and the rest of the neighborhood.

“We didn’t even know there was a prison,” said Ruben Vasquez in Spanish. The 33-year-old moved to the neighborhood with family two months ago.

Saray Lujan, 21, said she knew little of staffing shortages at the jail. She felt her proximity to the correctional center and Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, also on State Road, had little impact on her daily life.

In high school, she once experienced a lockdown believed to be related to an incident on State Road, “but I haven’t heard much else.”

The neighbors who were chatting about escape seemed more interested in the true crime nature of the jailbreak. One woman, who declined to give her name, said she’d been reading everything about the escape and was skeptical that the two men only had a 21-year-old woman helping them coordinate a ride from jail.

“Maybe it was an inside job,” she speculated before heading to a local corner store, a childish smile on her face.