Other inmates played cards at a table in the corridor to block the view of supervising workers and the hole was hidden behind the cover of a hot water register.

It was a calculated and daring escape that should have been prevented, Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Jared Thorne told reporters this afternoon.

“The escape should not have happened,” Thorne said, adding one of the escapees later told authorities he couldn’t believe the jailbreak actually worked.

On the night of the Feb. 24 escape, inmates waited until after the 8:30 p.m. head count before using a steel shower rod to smash a hole through the weakened exterior wall, according to the 136-page document tabled by a government-appointed external investigation team (EIT).

The names of the escaped inmates have yet to be released.