Warren County officials who oversee the county jail can’t necessarily do anything to get fugitive Michael Burham back in custody.

But they can take steps to ensure a situation like this can’t happen again.

The county’s Prison Board met in executive session at 3:30 p.m. on Monday.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said the session focused on “seeking legal counsel and hearing from the city police department as to the investigation. The Prison Board is taking the situation very seriously.”

While Kafferlin couldn’t discuss everything the Times Observer asked regarding Thursday night’s escape, he did detail the investigations that will be prompted by this incident. The first is a criminal probe by the City of Warren police, who are investigating how he escaped and whether anyone else is criminally liable for assisting him.

“We’re fully cooperating,” Kafferlin said, noting the city police are the “most appropriate” agency to conduct this element of the response. “They can be impartial in their investigation.”

He explained the criminal probe will be followed by a review of personnel compliance with policies and procedures in the jail that he will lead. That will explore whether any staff failed to comply with the regulations in the jail and also look at whether any policies and procedures need to be amended in light of this breach.

“I don’t know how long it will take me to investigate it,” he said.

Kafferlin said an item will be on Wednesday’s commissioner’s meeting agenda to also bring in the state Department of Corrections “to do a review of the facilities and the procedures.”

He said the hope is that the department can be at the facility this week.

“The facility is currently on lockdown,” Kafferlin said, “which means that inmates do not have access to the area where the breach happened.”

“We have a plan in place to make that breached area remedied,” he added. That work was to happen Monday night or this morning as city police have released that part of the facility back to the county.

“People have been asking me whose fault this is,” Kafferlin said. “It’s Burham. He’s the criminal here. It’s easy to look for a scapegoat. Why don’t we focus on catching this criminal,” fixing the breach and “correcting the person responsible for the crime.”