COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday were searching for an inmate they believe has made his second escape from a maximum-security South Carolina prison. 
 
 Officers began searching just before 2 p.m. Wednesday for Jimmy Causey, an inmate at Lieber Correctional Institution, about 90 miles (149 km) southeast of Columbia, according to Sommer Sharpe, spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. No other details have been released. 
 
 Causey, 46, has now escaped from two different prisons in a dozen years. He and another inmate, convicted murderer Johnny Brewer, escaped Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia in 2005 by hiding in a trash truck. 
 
 The pair eluded authorities for three days before being apprehended at a motel along busy Interstate 95, not far from the prison from which Causey escaped on Wednesday. A pizza delivery driver told The Associated Press at the time she tipped off authorities when she recognized a customer as one of the two men being sought by authorities. 
 
 Both men were returned to prison. Brewer was found two years later, hanging from a bed sheet in his cell. Grilled by state lawmakers about how the escape happened, then-prisons director Jon Ozmint blamed budget cutbacks that had forced his department to cut 800 security positions, leaving some areas like the trash compactor and loading dock unmonitored by officers. 
 
 The director also said the men had fashioned fake heads out of toilet paper and put them in their beds, fooling officers at a 7:15 a.m. prisoner count. After a 9:00 a.m. count came up short, officials did a roll call and realized the two were missing. 
 
 Causey, 46, was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 after he was convicted of holding Columbia attorney Jack Swerling and his family at gunpoint in their home. He was first incarcerated in state prison in 1992 on charges including grand larceny, according to online records. 
 
 In December, another inmate serving a life sentence escaped from a different maximum-security prison in South Carolina. Authorities said 47-year-old Michael Allen Williamson stabbed a police officer during his escape from McCormick Correctional Institution in the western part of the state. The officer's protective vest deflected many blows, but she was treated for two stab wounds to her arm and shoulder. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at https://apnews.com/search/meg%20kinnard. ||||| COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A South Carolina inmate broke out of a maximum-security prison using wire cutters that were apparently flown in by drone, officials said Friday, describing a new and devilishly hard-to-stop means of escape. 
 
 Convicted kidnapper Jimmy Causey, 46, was recaptured at a Texas motel before daybreak, more than two days after bolting to freedom in a plot worthy of a Hollywood script. It was the second time in 12 years that he escaped. 
 
 This time, he used a smuggled-in cellphone to coordinate the delivery of the breakout tools, investigators said. Then, with dusk approaching on the Fourth of July, he cut through four fences and left a paper maché dummy in his bed that fooled his guards. He got an 18-hour head start. 
 
 When he was caught, he had about $47,000 in cash and two guns, authorities said. 
 
 "We believe a drone was used to fly in the tools that allowed him to escape," South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said. He said investigators were still trying to confirm that, and he didn't elaborate on why they believe a drone was involved. 
 
 But an official aerial photo of the prison shows rings of tall fences and an expanse of more than 50 yards between the prison perimeter and the cellblocks, making it unlikely someone could have thrown or catapulted tools to him. 
 
 "If someone leaves the South Carolina Department of Corrections and tries to escape, we will hunt them down and look for them until we find them," Stirling said. "They will not be able to sleep or close their eyes and feel comfortable that they've gotten away because we will not stop like you saw this week." 
 
 Kevin Tamez, a 30-year law enforcement veteran who consults on prison security as managing partner of the New Jersey-based MPM Group, said he wasn't aware of any other U.S. prison escapes aided by drones. 
 
 Tamez said that delivering something heavy such as wire or bolt cutters via drone would require a sophisticated plan and a powerful machine. 
 
 "They have to land for you to get the contraband off of them," he said. "They can't drop it like a bomb." 
 
 Tamez said there is no easy way for prisons to protect against the use of small, unmanned aircraft, other than hiring more guards to watch the fences. 
 
 Stirling said the state is spending millions to install netting at prisons to prevent people from throwing things over, but confessed that won't stop drones. 
 
 South Carolina Department of Corrections 
 
 "Now they're going to fly over the nets," he said. "So what do we do next?" 
 
 Stirling said he and other state officials have asked the federal government for help with blocking inmates' access to cellcphone signals. 
 
 "This could have been a catastrophic result because of cellphones and drones, and it's a simple fix," Stirling told CBS affiliate WLTX. "Allow us to block the signal. Allow us to not allow these people have unfettered access to the outside world...They are physically incarcerated, but they are no longer virtually incarcerated." 
 
 A tip led Texas Rangers to a motel room in Austin where Causey was found sleeping around 4 a.m. Friday, authorities said. Texas officials released a photo of a handgun, shotgun, four cellphones and stacks of cash found with Causey about 1,200 miles from the Lieber Correctional Institution prison near Charleston. He also reportedly had some type of South Carolina ID. 
 
 Causey offered no resistance when he was re-arrested, reports WLTX. 
 
 "This was just good old-fashioned law enforcement," State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said. "We worked night and day." 
 
 Prison officials are investigating how his 8 p.m. disappearance Tuesday went unnoticed until 2 p.m. the next day. Keel said he believed a number of people assisted Causey. 
 
 "Everyone who assisted him - we intend on bringing to justice as well," Keel said. 
 
 Causey was sentenced to life behind bars 13 years ago for holding a lawyer at gunpoint. Authorities said he believed the defense attorney did not do enough to keep him out of prison in the 1990s. 
 
 In his first escape, from a different South Carolina prison in 2005, he and another inmate hid in a garbage truck that was leaving the maximum-security institution. They were arrested three days later after a woman delivering pizza to a motel called police. 
 
 Drones have been used to deliver contraband such as drugs and cellphones to prisons across the U.S., including two cases in recent years from South Carolina. In May, two men were arrested for trying to fly knives, marijuana and phones into a medium-security state prison. Another man is serving a 15-year sentence after officials found a crashed drone outside a maximum-security institution in 2014. 
 
 Authorities in Britain said two inmates there escaped from prison last year by cutting through window bars using a saw and wire cutters that were believed to have been flown in via drone. 
 
 Advanced technology and highly motivated prisoners can be a dangerous combination. 
 
 "You have nothing to do but sit on the edge of your bunk and figure out ways to get past the system," Tamez said. "You can't get complacent with them. These guys aren't stupid." ||||| File-This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Jimmy Causey who was re-captured in Texas early Friday, July 7, 2017, after his second escape from a maximum security... (Associated Press) 
 
 File-This undated photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows Jimmy Causey who was re-captured in Texas early Friday, July 7, 2017, after his second escape from a maximum security prison in South Carolina, prison officials said. Agency spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe says Causey... (Associated Press) 
 
 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — When it came time for lights out at Lieber Correctional Institution on the evening of July Fourth, officers at the maximum-security South Carolina prison thought they had all 1,300 inmates accounted for. 
 
 But convicted kidnapper Jimmy Causey wasn't in his bunk, a homemade dummy stuffed under the covers in his place. By the time prison officials realized Causey was missing, he'd already been gone for nearly a full day. Authorities gave new details of his plot following his capture early Friday after more than two days on the run. 
 
 Aided by wire cutters that authorities believe were flown in by a drone, Causey made it out of his cell, exited the dorm and cut through a series of metal fences. Authorities haven't said if he had a getaway car waiting for him. 
 
 But Causey got away, and fast. By the time officials confirmed he was gone, Causey had an 18-hour head start on law enforcement. He made it 1,200 miles (1,900 km) to Austin, Texas, where he was captured. 
 
 When authorities nabbed Causey early Friday morning as he slept in a motel, he had a pistol, a shotgun, four cellphones and $47,000 in cash. 
 
 Authorities are in the process of extraditing Causey to South Carolina, where he'll be sent to one of the prison system's most secure facilities. Officials are still probing exactly what happened leading up to and following the escape. 
 
 State Corrections Director Bryan Stirling wouldn't say if staff errors contributed to Causey's escape, but he told reporters Friday that one officer would have been on duty in the area near Causey's cell around when he got out. Later Friday, Corrections officials told The Associated Press one Lieber employee had been fired in connection with Causey's escape. 
 
 It was Causey's second prison escape in 12 years. In 2005, Causey also used a dummy — this one made from toilet paper — to trick officers into thinking he was asleep in his bunk at a different South Carolina prison. He and another inmate hid in a garbage truck that was leaving the maximum-security institution. They were arrested three days later after a woman delivering pizza to a motel called police. 
 
 The use of drones has increased as a way to deliver contraband such as drugs and cellphones to prisons across the U.S., including two recent cases in South Carolina. In May, two men were arrested for trying to fly knives, marijuana and phones into a medium-security state prison. Another man is serving a 15-year sentence after officials found a crashed drone outside a maximum-security institution in 2014. 
 
 Kevin Tamez, a 30-year law enforcement veteran who consults on prison security as managing partner of the New Jersey-based MPM Group, said he wasn't aware of any other U.S. prison escapes aided by drones. 
 
 Stirling said the state is spending millions to install netting at prisons to prevent people from throwing things over, but confessed that won't stop drones. 
 
 "Now they're going to fly over the nets," he said. "So what do we do next?" 
 
 For Stirling, it's contraband cellphones that represent the biggest security threat, both inside and out of the prison. Last month, six correctional officers were rescued after an attempted confiscation of an inmate's cellphone prompted a fight at a different prison in South Carolina. 
 
 In 2010, a veteran South Carolina correctional officer survived being shot six times at his home after officials say an inmate planned the shooting and used an illegal cellphone to coordinate with the shooter. 
 
 Stirling, who for years has spoken out about the dangers posed by inmates' access to illegal cellphones behind bars, has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to jam cell signals at South Carolina prisons. Chairman Ajit Pai has said he's sympathetic to the problem, but the FCC has previously said its hands are tied by a decades-old law that says the agency can grant permission to jam the public airwaves only to federal agencies, not state or local ones. Any change is opposed by the cellphone industry, out of concern it could lead to wider gaps in their networks. 
 
 Frustrated that Causey's escape is yet another security problem involving smuggled cellphones, Stirling urged the public to call their representatives in Congress and demand a solution such as the ability to jam signals at prison. 
 
 "It is senseless to me that the federal government continues to prohibit state officials and state prisons from blocking cellphones," he said. "It needs to be fixed now. It needs to be fixed yesterday." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Diana Heidgerd in Dallas contributed to this report.
– Police in South Carolina say they're searching for an inmate who's extremely dangerous—and has managed to break out of a maximum-security prison for the second time since he began serving a life sentence in 2004. Jimmy Causey, 46, has been missing from the Lieber Correctional Institution since around 2pm Wednesday, the AP reports. In his previous escape, he broke out of the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia in 2005 with convicted murderer Johnny Brewer by hiding in a trash truck. After three days on the run, they were recaptured at a motel 100 miles away on Interstate 95 when a pizza delivery driver recognized them and tipped off authorities. Residents near the Ridgeville, SC, prison have been urged to "remain vigilant, keep vehicles and homes secured" while the search continues. Causey, who first went to state prison for grand larceny in 1992, is serving a life sentence for kidnapping prominent Columbia attorney Jack Swerling and his wife and daughter, the Post and Courier reports. He held the lawyer—who had represented him in previous cases—at gunpoint and demanded money. During the trial, the court heard that Swerling had managed to get reduced sentences for Causey on two occasions in the 1990s, but Causey still held a grudge about having been sent to prison at all.