Three inmates are on the run after breaking out of a jail in Missouri.

The Barry County Sheriff’s Office says the inmates cut and climbed out of holes in the ceiling.

They entered a water heater storage area and were able to escape through a maintenance door.

Detective Doug Henry told CNN the ceilings are made of plaster and could have made the escape easier.

There were also only two staff members working in the jail at the time of the escape, Sheriff Danny Boyd said.

The inmates, identified as Lance Stephens, Matthew Crawford and Christopher Blevins, have been missing for four days now.

U.S. Marshals are now in charge of the search.

Investigators with the Marshals Service say the three are no longer in Missouri and they are likely not together anymore.

One reportedly was seen in Arkansas and another in Springfield.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Recruiting and retaining prison workers is a growing issue for the country. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 10% drop in prison staffing in the next 10 years.

One state is leading the way to help close the gap in the shortage of correction officers.

“We were in bad shape just like everyone else; it’s a national problem," said Bryan Stirling, the South Carolina Department of Corrections director. “The unique challenge corrections have is the environment they have to work in.”

There is a growing crisis in our correction facilities. The lack of correctional officers is hurting facilities all over the country, even on the federal level.

The Justice Department budgeted for nearly 21,000 full-time officers in 2020 but only had nearly 14,000 of those positions filled in 2021.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts there will be about 33,000 officer openings on average each year for the next 10 years.

“If you don’t have the core function of safety, you can’t reach the basic needs these folks have without staff,” Stirling said. “So, we have to do things differently. So, what does that mean? More aggressive recruiting, more aggressive pay scale."

In South Carolina, the state is trying to fix staffing issues, because those who work here know this job is can be demanding. Each officer is responsible for the safety of the public, the inmates, and their fellow officers. Staffing shortages make this job that much harder. That is why South Carolina has taken several different approaches to try and fix this.

“It could be a tough job, but any job can be a tough job,” said Lt. Genice Cole, with retention at Broad River Institute in SCDC. “We have increased the training to feel more comfortable and feel more welcome. It was previously four weeks. With it being eight weeks, we give them the opportunity to be inside in the housing units with staff that are certified to give them a little more comfort.”

“I have been doing this for three months,” said Alex Hassam, a recruit for SCDC. “Honestly, training has been fantastic. Communication has been good. There’s a lot of people to walk you through things to help you gain confidence. You’re never truly alone and always having somebody who has your back that is very nearby.”

South Carolina recently increased pay for their officers. According to Stirling, an officer can make more than $50,000 in their first year. The BLS reported the pre-pandemic starting salary average was around $32,000 a year.

“We have more aggressive recruiting, and a more aggressive pay scale. We just had a historic pay raise here in South Carolina; other states are doing pay raises as well. Other departments that hire are union based, and you can be close to six figures starting off. We are up 150 officers this year just in six months due to the raises given through the legislature.”

South Carolina has also lowered the age minimum to be a correctional officer to 18, which Stirling said has helped fill vacancies.

“We’re going to pair them with experienced officers, with someone that’s older inside the prison. We’re not going to just put them in a dorm by themselves,” Stirling said.

This staffing shortage issue is expected to grow, but South Carolina hopes other states can learn from each other and implement the best tactic for their situation.

Three former inmates have reportedly filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after they say they were forced to listen to the children's song “Baby Shark" on repeat.

According to The Oklahoman, they are suing Oklahoma County commissioners, the county sheriff, the jail trust and two former officers at the jail.

An investigation found the officers handcuffed the inmates to a wall and played the song loudly, over and over, as a form of punishment, The Kansas City Star reported. The lawsuit reportedly compares the action to torture.

The officers were charged in 2020. They are scheduled to go to trial in February, The Oklahoman reports.

The inmates are reportedly seeking $75,000 in damages.

POTEAU, Okla. —

Two people escaped from the LeFlore County Detention Center in Poteau, Oklahoma, early Friday morning, according to a press release.

Sheriff Rodney Derryberry said that the two men stole a truck with a rifle, a handgun and ammunition inside.

The two pried a hole in a steel wall and went through it into a utility room. They then knocked out a window and escaped from the building.

It had taken the two some time to pry open the hole, Derryberry said. A blanket had been used to cover the hole.

Jailers discovered they were missing during an hourly headcount at about 2 a.m.

Law enforcement later got a report of a stolen truck. The truck had been left unlocked with the keys inside, Derryberry said.

The truck is a 2015 white Ford F-150 pickup with Oklahoma license plate number BOK160. There is damage to the rear driver-side bumper.

The two inmates who escaped are Jeromy Call and Jason Delao. Call was at the detention center on charges of burglary and escape, according to Derryberry, while Delao was at the center on drug charges.

Call had escaped in February from the same facility. He stole two vehicles during that escape, Derryberry said.

If you see the truck or have other information about the escape, you're asked to call LeFlore County Dispatch at 918-647-2317.

DENVER, Co. — While serving a 21-year sentence for robbery, Marchell Taylor Bey wanted to put those mistakes in the past.

“I was always agitated. I was always snappy, agitated, impulsive, but I didn't know what was wrong,” he said.

While in prison, he educated himself about business, found a business partner, and when he got out, they got to work. But he soon found himself back inside.

“Thirty-six days later, after doing 21 years of incarceration, I went and robbed a Papa John's pizza. My brain just shut down,” he said.

While he takes ownership of his actions, Taylor Bey learned about ongoing research from the University of Denver that suggests he was also a prisoner of his own mind.

“I didn't know I had a traumatic brain injury. I didn't even know I had mental health issues,” Taylor Bey admitted.

The CDC defines a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, as an injury that can affect how the brain works, caused by a blow to the head. The CDC recognizes it as a major cause of disability.

New findings by researchers estimate 50-80% of America’s prison population has had a TBI. Outside of prison, less than 9% of the general population has this injury.

The statistics are worse for incarcerated women, with the study finding 97% have had a TBI and half have had multiple.

The results of this groundbreaking research was shocking to the study’s author, Dr. Kim Gorgens of the University of Denver, who has been speaking out about this issue for the last few years.

Dr. Gorgens’ research has shown that TBIs can impact someone’s ability for self-regulation, judgment, reasoning, and problem-solving, and that, she says, can lead inmates to re-offend once they are out of jail.

Corey Shively met Taylor Bey in prison and is now his business partner at their company, AYBOS Marketing. Thanks to the study, they both discovered TBIs they suffered when they were younger have impacted their judgment and impulse control, and are now getting help for it.

“Trauma is the only thing that we let get to a stage four, you know before we start to treat it, and the treatment is prison,” said Shively.

Along with growing their marketing business, they’ve made it their mission to educate their communities about traumatic brain injuries. The two business partners have created a campaign called Rebuild Your Mind, with the intention of getting the word out about TBIs and mental illness to communities where they are not normally talked about.

“We should have better resources in our community to be able to deal with this trauma upfront. We shouldn't have to wait till Marchell is 47 and I'm 40 years old for us to get some therapy, for us to get back to a baseline state of safety,” he said.

They’ve taken their mission to the Colorado State Capitol, with the hopes of changing policy across the nation.

They helped create a new law that mandates neuropsychological exams for inmates once they get sentenced. If a mental illness or brain injury is detected, psychologists make two plans: one for prison staff to manage the inmate and the other for the inmate on how they can better themselves, all with the hope of reducing recidivism.

Taylor Bey hopes this is just the first step in helping people like himself recognize their own disability to make themselves, and everyone around them, safer.

“They return back to a baseline state of safety so people can operate effectively, and they don't have to suffer in silence,” he said.

After spending years behind bars, the pandemic has allowed thousands of prisoners to reunite with their loved ones in home confinement. But is it short-lived?

Many inmates who were released claim they’ve built new lives and are contributing to society, as they wait for a decision from the government.

One of those anxiously waiting for a decision is Jeffrey Wingate, who has learned never to take anything for granted--not his family, and certainly not his freedom. For 20 years, he did everything with Jan, the love of his life. Jan was there to help him battle and beat two rounds of cancer.

But there was a secret Wingate held onto, up until it was too late. He admits he was using more pills than was prescribed to him.

“I was taking 30 oxycodone pills a day to alleviate the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. The pain was so unbearable I probably would have committed suicide,” he recalled.

Wingate wanted more than his doctor prescribed, so he started buying them illegally and selling them to friends until the feds caught on. After a week behind bars, he saw Jan for the first time.

“To look through that window and tell her that everything she heard was true was pretty tough,” Wingate said.

For six years, Wingate sat behind bars. He got treatment for his rheumatoid arthritis, and he overcame the drug dependency.

That wasn’t all. Wingate also earned three degrees. Those degrees were all aimed at one goal: to help those behind bars that seemed to have lost all hope.

“Until you see the face of someone with no hope in prison, you have never seen happiness. It’s unbelievable,” he said. “I had the chance to help more than one. I live for it.”

Wingate was still locked up in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the United States. That’s when his freedom, of sorts, came earlier than he expected. The Attorney General of the United States told the federal prison system to give low-risk inmates at-home detention, tying it to the CARES Act.

Since his home release last year, Wingate has begun to re-establish the time he lost with his family. He has taken back his “dad chores” around the house, fixing things and mowing lawns. He has also taken a part-time job at a law firm as a researcher.

But all that might change. In January of this year, former Attorney General William Barr issued a memo saying the Federal Bureau of Prisons should recall 7,000 prisoners, including Wingate. The final decision could be made later this year by the board of prisons.

“To send them back, I don’t know how we could do anything crueler,” said Kevin Ring, president of FAMM, a Washington D.C.-based organization that advocates for the rights of prisoners and their families. “It certainly won’t make us safer; it will cost us more money and it will really hurt families.”

Statistics from 2017 show a prisoner in confinement costs the government nearly $35,000 a year compared to the nearly $4,500 when in home confinement.

According to Ring, these people are not entirely free. He says they would certainly rather be in home confinement than prison, but they all have ankle monitors on. Every move they make is tracked and so there is still deprivation of their liberty. He says they’re allowed to go to work, but they must submit schedules ahead of time and they must get drug tested.

Victim advocate groups believe home release under the CARES Act saved thousands of lives.

Some of the biggest proponents keeping certain inmates at home are the exact same people that put them behind bars.

“This is setting aside how we felt as a government official. We had people in our care that we had to ensure survived. They are criminals, but they are people. I would tell my prosecutors all the time you cannot take the humanity out of what we do,” said Justin Herdman, a former US attorney for the northern district of Ohio.

Wingate agrees.

“Sending people back to prison that are making their transition--there are duties that we’ve picked up, contributing to house. Take us back out of the loop, it’s almost pure evil.”

But it’s something Wingate is ready to face.

Wingate’s fate will come down to how current Attorney General Merrick Garland feels or if President Biden or Congress steps in.

FAMM sent out a plea to Garland and President Biden. US Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, also sent a letter to Garland, siding with people like Wingate.

So, for now, thousands of prisoners and their families are forced to just sit and wait.

We asked for interviews with the representative and senators who represent the area where Wingate lives: Congressman Andy Barr and Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.

None of them returned our request for comment.