Prison officials denied reports of an elaborate escape plan that included a set of tunnels being dug inside Trenton's New Jersey State Prison yesterday.

"The fact is there was nothing remotely compromising the secure perimeter of the facility," prison spokesman Matt Schuman insisted yesterday.

Yesterday, Schuman would confirm that three inmates are being held in confinement inside the maximum-security prison related to the possible escape plan uncovered by a corrections officer over the weekend, but denied the reported tunnels existed.

Prison insiders reported Monday that two tunnels were dug in the North and South compounds inside Trenton's New Jersey State Prison. The sources said at least one of the tunnels had been dug to just inside an outside wall that would have led the escaping inmates into the parking lot where corrections officers park their cars during duty hours.

Prison insiders reported the wall was never broken through to the parking lot, but that was all that remained to be completed.

"All they had to do was break through the red brick wall and they could have lowered themselves onto the ground," a prison insider told The Trentonian Monday.

Prison officials refuted the existence of the tunnels.

"There were no tunnels, and there were no sheets leading to parking lots," Shuman said contradicting earlier reports provided to The Trentonian.

There was at least one sheet found inside an open area behind a utility closet in the prison, Shuman revealed yesterday, but he insisted that whoever put the sheets there did not have to dig a tunnel to get that part of the prison.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Schuman would not comment on whether a wall had been broken down or a hole created in a wall to gain access to the open area where the sheet was found.