Mississippi lawmen searched Monday for two inmates who escaped from the Hinds County Detention Center through an air vent this weekend.

Christopher Wade Lane, 39, of Bolton and Robert Jason Bowen of Rankin County managed to get out of the facility in Raymond sometime between Saturday night and early Sunday morning, said Undersheriff Bill Gowan.

Lane was in custody for an armed-robbery charge since August 2005, Gowan said, while Bowen had been jailed on a house-burglary charge since Jan. 30.

The inmates were not cellmates but were housed in the same pod area of the jail. The men's beds were made up to appear they were both asleep. The two apparently gained access to a maintenance room, climbed through an air vent to the outside, then crossed a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, Gowan said.

An investigation into the escape is ongoing, authorities said.
The maintenance room is always locked, Gowan said, meaning the door was either accidentally left open Saturday night or the inmates picked the lock. Only maintenance workers have keys for the door.
This is only the second time inmates have escaped from he detention center since it opened in November 1994.

Two men in 2003 by walked through an unlocked emergency exit.
Paul Boykin, 24, of Jackson was rearrested that same day. Nathaniel Brent, 30, of Clinton was rearrested May 7, 2003, in Wisconsin. Both men were in jail on rape charges.