DUBUQUE, Iowa - A Dubuque County Jail prisoner who ducked out a door while working in the jail’s kitchen Tuesday morning is back in custody just 24 hours later.

Jeffrey Hess, 25, served as an inmate worker at the jail while sentenced to 180 days for domestic assault and probation violation. Hess was considered a non violent, minimum security inmate and earned the privilege of working in the jail kitchen. Inmate workers earn a 25 percent reduction in sentence and also don’t have to pay the county jail’s room and board fee like other prisoners.

As escapes go, this one at the Dubuque County Jail wasn’t that dramatic. Hess simply opened a kitchen fire door and went out the back. He dropped his jail-issued shirt and jogged away. One restaurant worker nearby thought it was odd, but didn’t think jailbreak.

“He was just running, we thought it was a little weird he had no shirt on – it was cold outside yesterday, at least I thought it was,” Jennifer Halter said.

Halter said a deputy showed up just minutes later asking ‘which way did he go’ and workers pointed out the escape route.

Dubuque jail administrator, Captain Mike Muenster, said Hess was caught mid afternoon Wednesday at the home of a friend in Dubuque. He now faces a misdemeanor escape charge, must serve the remainder of his original jail term and won’t get his old jail job back.

The Dubuque County Jail routinely uses three or four prisoners as inmate workers to save tax dollars. Such workers used to be called jail “trustees.”

Muenster said it’s a coveted position because inmate workers get out of the cell block and even outside to do jobs. Getting prisoners to do some of the labor of running a jail saves Dubuque County taxpayers at least $50,000 a year if not more.

“To add another custodian to do those tasks, such as working in the kitchen or doing the laundry or taking out the garbage would be a huge cost to county taxpayers obviously,” Muenster said.

Muenster said the door Hess used to leave is locked from the outside but equipped with a panic bar on the inside. Fire rules prohibit the jail from locking that door because it is the only escape route for the kitchen. No deputies watch inmate workers in the kitchen and they are supervised there by Aramark Corporation, which provides meal services for prisoners. Inmate prisoners working outside are supervised by county maintenance staff.

The administrator said food service managers who run the kitchen are not expected to try to physically stop a jail worker from leaving.

Muenster said this may have been the first time an inmate worker escaped in a number of years. But he doubted the escape will prompt any drastic changes in the use of a few prisoners as helpers because of the cost to the county budget.

The Dubuque County Jail routinely uses three or four prisoners as inmate workers to save tax dollars. Such workers used to be called jail “trustees.” Muenster said the door Hess used to leave is locked from the outside but equipped with a panic bar on the inside. Fire rules prohibit the jail from locking that door because it is the only escape route for the kitchen. No deputies watch inmate workers in the kitchen and they are supervised there by Aramark Corporation, which provides meal services for prisoners.

Muenster said this may have been the first time an inmate worker escaped in a number of years. But he doubted the escape will prompt any drastic changes in the use of a few prisoners as helpers because of the cost to the county budget.

Hess will now face a serious misdemeanor charge of escape as well as the original 180 day sentence. Muenster said he won’t be considered for a inmate worker job again.