Patterson said it did not appear any policy was violated during Curtis Michael Allgier's hospital visit.

Only high-risk inmates required two officers during transport, and Allgier was not considered high-risk, Patterson said. In other hospital locations, one officer looks over multiple inmates who are put in a holding area, he said.

"We had not considered him high risk," Corrections spokesman Jack Ford said. "We had transported him before and had not had a problem."

Inmates high in a gang's hierarchy or convicted of violent crimes such as murder would be considered high risk, Ford said. Allgier was neither, he said.

Allgier had visited the Orthopaedic Center at least twice before, and had been transported to various places 19 times without incident, Patterson said.

The prison transports about 15 inmates a day to university hospital sites, he said. Officers typically are in suit and tie and prisoners usually wear orange jump suits.

"We didn't want to jeopardize public safety, and we didn't want to lose an officer," Patterson said.

University police rarely are notified of the visits and usually don't provide extra security, said Scott Folson, director of public safety for the university.

In recent decades, two other prison inmates escaped during trips to the university's hospital system, according to Tribune reports and interviews with Corrections officials.

In August 1984, Ronnie Lee Gardner fled a routine physical at University Hospital, overpowered a guard and forced a hospital employee to drive him away on a motorcycle, according to Tribune reports.

Just a year later, Gardner shot and killed an attorney and wounded a bailiff during an attempted escape at Salt Lake City's Metropolitan Courthouse, where he was in trial proceedings for a bar owner's murder a few months earlier. He remains on death row.

In 1996, Mark D. Warner went missing during an overnight stay at University Hospital for liver failure. He was found the same day at a relative's house in West Valley City.

rrizzo@sltrib.com