Inmates in the Scott City Jail used a mixture of pancake batter and toothpaste to disguise a hole chiseled in the mortar of an interior wall, officials discovered Saturday. The inmates were able to remove a block, allowing a female inmate to slide through into an adjacent cell housing a male inmate, according to Scott City police chief Don Cobb.

Cobb said his officers discover plots such as this and confiscate digging implements on a daily basis, but sometimes someone literally slips through the cracks.

"Inmates are masters of their environment, and they will use anything they can get their hands on," Cobb said. "In this case, the inmates had gotten hold of a nail and fashioned a tool with a piece of wire from a light fixture and a toothbrush."

Cobb said the mixture used to cover the digging was nearly identical to mortar in appearance.

The Scott County Sheriff's Department transported all its prisoners back to the Scott County Jail where they will remain until a security check of the facility is completed, according to a news release. The Scott City Jail is the overflow facility for the Scott County Jail.

Cobb said reinforced steel plates are being added to all interior walls to prevent any further incidents. Exterior walls of the facility are already reinforced with steel, so there was never any question of inmates escaping the facility, Cobb said.

"Unless they can smuggle in an arc welder, they aren't getting through that," Cobb said.

pwylie@semissourian.com

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