By KYLE MARTIN
kmartin@hernandotoday.com

SPRING HILL - Hernando County sheriff’s detectives are investigating an escape from the privately-operated jail in Spring Hill yesterday. But the time the inmate was on the lam varies from six to four and a half hours, depending on who you ask.

A sheriff’s detective said two hours lapsed before jail officials called for help after finding Kenneth Ferris, 41, missing.

“That’s inaccurate,” said Assistant Warden Russell Washburn, who said it took 30 minutes to confirm an inmate was missing and alert authorities.

It wasn’t until 5 p.m. that the public was notified of the escape. Another two hours passed before Ferris was captured at Brooksville’s Budget Inn on State Road 50.

Detective Tommy Breedlove said Ferris gave this account of the escape:

At about 5 a.m. a Brooksville police officer said he nabbed Ferris burglarizing the Golden Corral Restaurant on Broad Street.

Ferris was “severely intoxicated,” according to Washburn, so he was placed in a holding cell at the jail to sleep it off.

About 1 p.m., Ferris awoke, ate lunch and began exploring the booking area. Because he had not been processed, Ferris was not wearing the brightly colored prison garb.

He found the door leading to the outside sally port open and walked out. The jail’s sally port has two tall metal doors which slide up and down to admit transport vans and squad cars.

One of those vans was leaving the sally port when Ferris walked out, so he followed it. He was almost clear when a perimeter guard stopped him. Ferris said he played it cool and told the officer he was dropping off cigarettes to an inmate in the jail. The guard told him to leave and Ferris did so.

Washburn said it is yet to be determined if any punitive action will be taken against the corrections officer who let Ferris go. But, he added, the public walks by the sally port all the time so it was easy to make a mistake.

After walking out the jail, Ferris went to his mother’s house on Tampa Street - about four miles north of the jail, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.

What happened in the hours after that remain under investigation. About 7 p.m. two deputies tracked Ferris to room No. 105 at the Budget Inn.

A woman answered the door. Behind her, Deputy Dane Jenkins saw Ferris rush into the bathroom.

Deputies ordered Ferris out of the room and as they pulled his belongings together, found 49 pills of Clonezepam in the right pocket of Ferris’ black jacket, deputies said. The medicine is generally used to thwart seizures and panic attacks.

Ferris was interviewed at the sheriff’s office and, again, taken to jail. When he was told to strip, Ferris began fighting with corrections officers, Jenkins said.

Ferris had hidden two crack cocaine rocks, a lighter and a crack pipe in his rectal cavity, Jenkins reported.

In addition to the original burglary charge, Ferris is now charged with escape, possession of a controlled substance and introducing contraband into a jail.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be contacted at 352-544-5271.

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