Failure to follow proper policies and procedures allowed an inmate at the Douglas County Jail to escape last Saturday, Sheriff Rick Trapp said Friday.

The escapee, Vernon Folks, 29, Eudora, is still at large.

“The existing policies are adequate when properly followed,” Trapp said.

Trapp declined to comment about whether any disciplinary action was being taken against any jail employees.

Folks managed to leave the jail through a remote-controlled door used by inmates in the work-release program. Folks was in work-release but wasn’t supposed to leave when he did, Trapp said. Shortly before 8 a.m., another inmate was getting ready to leave, and Folks went out ahead of him.

Trapp said his office had been reviewing jail policies and procedures as well as any physical changes that might need to be made.

“The policies developed under (former sheriff) Loren Anderson are very good,” Trapp said. “If the policies had been strictly adhered to, this wouldn’t have been a problem.”

Trapp declined to talk about those policies and procedures for security reasons.

The jail opened while Anderson was sheriff on Sept. 11, 1999. Folks is the first to escape from it. He was serving a combined six months in jail for convictions on misdemeanor battery and fleeing and eluding police.

The escape didn’t become public knowledge until Tuesday. Brian Foltz, 28, who lives nearby, was angered Wednesday when he read about the jailbreak in the Journal-World.

“A majority of my neighbors and their children in the Prairie Park school district were outside with their houses wide open and in harm’s way,” Foltz said.

If something had happened, Foltz said, he would have held the Sheriff’s Office responsible.

Trapp said officers had been in the area of the jail looking for Folks right after it happened.

Investigators don’t know if Folks is still in Douglas County.

“We’ve been following leads outside of Douglas County, but they haven’t proved fruitful,” Trapp said.

Folks has brown hair and hazel eyes. He is 6 feet tall and weighs 180 pounds. Anyone with information can call the Crime Stoppers hot line, 843-TIPS, and callers remain anonymous. They also can call the Sheriff’s Office at 841-0007.