The prison houses mostly maximum-security inmates serving long sentences, or inmates who have been difficult to control at lower-security institutions.

Ussery's bicycle was parked near where he hopped the prison fence, prison officials said. Thirty corrections officers combed the prison yard for hidden contraband that the ex-inmate may have been trying to sneak in.

"We don't have any evidence of this in this case, but we have had incidents where former prisoners have snuck back onto the property to hide backpacks filled with drugs, alcohol or phones," Quinn said.

"Minimum-security prisoners then find those backpacks and try to smuggle the contraband into the prison," he said. Officers had not found smuggled contraband by Thursday afternoon.