New video shows shocking Fremont County inmate escape

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - A newly obtained video from the Fremont County Sheriff's Office shows the most recent escapee, a violent offender, escaping through the panels of a ceiling, ducking under windows and simply running out the front doors.

Four inmates have escaped the Fremont County Jail in the last two years. Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper says the escapes were due to hardware and software issues, and undertrained staff.

Now, Sheriff Cooper and Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham say the issues have been fixed. Cooper, explained to KRDO13 Investigates that the problems were with the ceiling panels, a faulty software system that has been fixed and undertrained staff. He says he's since trained staff "up to 75% more."

Fremont County Commissioner Kevin Grantham also addressed the chronic issue.

"I mean, it's not something that obviously it happens every day," Grantham said. "Obviously the the level of the inmates that we're seeing in the jail are elevating. Some of those are well ... escape artists. And so they find ways out."

Grantham said that the county had fulfilled all of the sheriff's recommendations for jail improvements.

However, Cooper says there are items on his list that would make the jail more secure, but he hasn't bothered to ask for them because he knows it won't fit in the county budget. One of those line items is pay raises totaling half a million dollars, directed towards the county jail staff to keep salaries competitive for the area.

He says the money would help address a county-wide issue: employee retention.

"My staff are young. I have people here that are working on the detention side and this may be their first real job," Cooper explained. "If I don't have players with experience, then they can't recognize when an inmate is trying to manipulate them. That only comes with time."

Grantham echoed the sentiment, explaining that the county had spent thousands of dollars training new officers, only to lose them to Colorado Springs or El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

"We've had several vacancies out there in multiple locations in the sheriff's office, and just trying to get those filled -- there's not a lot of activity there when it comes to [applications] and finding qualified applicants that can come in to do that job," Grantham said.