Some of the articles said they accessed the tunnels from the power house, which if I'm not mistaken is situated inside the prison wallsActually the power house is outside the walls. It's about three blocks away.
The prisoners work in the power house. I assume it's trustees and they work with contractors. Not sure what they're doing now. The manhole cover is close to the power house.
Thanks for the info. The prison I retired from was a Medium A (highest security for Mediums). It had originally been a psychiatric hospital, but renovated to house inmates. There was a steam tunnel system that ran under the prison, and in order to inspect them, you entered from inside one of the building basements within the facility. That prison had razor ribbon fencing, microwave intrusion system between the fences, 24 hour-a-day armed vehicle patrol, plus cameras mounted on the fences. The power house was outside there too, and convicts worked there as well, under the supervision of a civilian employee. He'd pick them up at the front gate area every morning, and bring them back before he went home. I guess having worked at Auburn prison, I assumed the power house was inside the wall like everything else.
Now I'm wondering about the info in the articles that claimed they escaped through the power house. If it's outside, then why would they need to access it? They must have gotten down into the tunnels from somewhere inside, and followed them until they reached a manhole outside the wall. The State isn't giving the media the actual escape route for security purposes. That cracks me up since Warden Andy was so free with having himself photographed in every possible pose, at various spots that those guys escaped through.