An inmate escaped from the Lexington County Detention Center Friday morning, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the jail, reported via social media. He was apprehended later in the afternoon.

“[Charles Bradford Deese] was last seen going over the outer fence around 9:45 a.m.,” the department posted at 1:18 p.m. to Twitter and Facebook.

Deese, a 48-year-old Batesburg-Leesville resident, was apprehended "after he was seen in the woods near Barr Road and Belo Road," the department posted at 2:23 p.m.

"We want to say thank you to everyone in the community who reported sightings!"

“Deese was being held on a number of charges including forgery, failure to stop for blue lights, domestic violence and distribution of meth,” the department's original post reads. “K-9s are searching for Deese and a large perimeter has been set up. Other law enforcement agencies have been notified.”

A charge of escape has been added following today's events, a sheriff's department spokesperson told the Chronicle.

The detention center is located at 521 Gibson Road, about a half mile from the intersection with U.S. Highways 1 (West Main Street) and 378. Belo and Barr intersect Two Notch Road a little more than five miles from the jail.

The sheriff's department spokesperson told the Chronicle that a full investigation is underway to determine how Deese managed to get over the fence and what steps might need to be taken to prevent future escapes of this kind.

There were no escapes from the detention center in 2021, the spokesperson confirmed.

The department wrote in its post after Deese was re-apprehended that it alerted the public to his escape via CodeRED alert, a program Lexington County has used since 2020.

"The County uses CodeRED to send EMERGENCY notifications by phone, email, text and social media to keep citizens informed of emergencies such as an evacuation notices, utility outages, water main breaks, fire or floods, chemical spills, or other emergency situations," the county website says of the program.

Those interested in signing up for CodeRED alerts, can do so by clicking here.

The sheriff's department spokesperson told the Chronicle that the first CodeRED alert about the escape was sent at 1:17 p.m., with a second alert going out at 2:15 p.m., shortly after Deese was caught, announcing the search was over.

"Due to the fact that he was an inmate worker, we were doing an internal check," the department said in a written statement when asked why authorities waited until 1:17 p.m. to send the first alert. "We sent out the message after we reviewed the cameras and determined that he had left the facility."