Warden replaced at prison where inmate escaped last month

RIDGEVILLE, SC (AP) — There is a new warden at the South Carolina prison where an inmate got an 18-hour head start on an escape.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Summer Sharpe told local media Joel Anderson took over as warden at the maximum security Lieber Correctional Institute in Ridgeville on Thursday.

Anderson replaces Joseph McFadden, who had been warden since 2013.

Sharpe would not say whether McFadden’s replacement was related to the July 4 escape of 46-year-old Jimmy Causey, who was captured near Austin, Texas, three days later.

He escaped using wire cutters that were apparently dropped into the prison grounds by a drone. He had created a dummy under the covers in his cell to cover his escape, similar to what he had done when escaped a Columbia prison in 2005.