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Danelo Cavalcante’s escape was fifth Pennsylvania jailbreak in 2023 

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Danelo Cavalcante’s high-profile escape from a Pennsylvania prison last month was the fifth in the state this year – which appears to indicate a larger problem with security at its jails, experts warn.

Cavalcante scaled the wall at the Chester County Prison and slipped through razor wire, echoing another prisoner’s earlier escape method from the facility.

Meanwhile, an inmate in Warren County had used a rope of bedsheets to rappel off a building, while two other jailbirds escaped through a hole in the recreation yard at Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility.

Facilities like the Chester County Prison – which, despite its title, is actually a jail – often fall far short of the standards of state and federal-run institutions, Don Hummer, an associate professor of criminal justice told CNN.

“[Prisons] are much more of a rigid, organizational culture in terms of how the facilities are run, [while jails] are different from county to county,” he explained.

“Obviously it’s [too relaxed] if they’ve had five escapes since May. They should not be escaping. There’s definitely some kind of issue that they’re not taking care of,” former San Quentin Prison Deputy Prison Warden Daniel B. Vasquez told The Post.

Before Cavalcante’s escape, the facility’s most high-profile fugitive was Igor Bolte, now 30, who managed to slip away from the facility twice: once for a period of several hours in July 2019, and again this past May, per the New York Times.

Bolte, who is serving time for probation violation, told police after the spring incident he was able to scale the wall in the jail exercise area by crab walking – propping his legs up against one wall and leaning his arms into the other, CNN said, citing court documents.

An investigation will probe whether Bolte, currently serving time for probation violation, knew Cavalcante after he used the same escape tactic, authorities told CNN last week.

In the wake of Bolte’s escape, officials reassured the public they were taking steps to amp up security at the facility.

“We thought we took appropriate measures to … prevent that with the razor wire,” Chester County Prison Acting Warden Howard Holland said during a Sept. 6 news conference.

In the wake of Bolte’s escape, officials reassured the public they were taking steps to amp up security at the facility.

“Again, the one thing we didn’t take into account was a failure on the human element side, we only focused on the physical infrastructure and not necessarily the human element.”

The so-called “human element” — eluding the tower guard on duty — also played a role in Cavalcante’s escape.

An 18-year corrections veteran who was supposed to be watching out when Cavalcante made off was consequently fired last week, a Chester County spokesperson told The Post.

A few weeks before Bolte’s brief escape, on May 7, two inmates fled a Philadelphia jail and spent almost 24 hours on the lam before staff even realized they were missing.

Ameen Hurst, 18, and Nasir Grant, 24, slipped through a hole in the recreation yard fence at the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Facility around 8 p.m., authorities said.

Officials were not aware of their ploy until 3 p.m. the following day, they later admitted.

“We have protocols in place and those protocols were not followed,” Philadelphia Prisons Department Commissioner Blanche Carney lamented at a presser, at which she noted that the pair’s absence went unnoticed during three head counts after their escape.

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