Sheriff Susan Hutson has said she believes the jail break was an inside job and last week told reporters her agency had suspended three employees pending an investigation.

Hundreds of local, state and federal authorities are scrambling to find seven inmates who bolted out of a New Orleans jail Friday, sprinted across an interstate and vanished.

The escape has also brought new scrutiny on the Orleans Parish jail, a long-troubled facility with a history of poor conditions and insufficient oversight of inmates.