MEDIUM-SECURITY INMATE CAUGHT AFTER BRIEF ESCAPE.

Byline: Holly Edwards Staff Writer

CASTAIC - For the second time in two weeks, a Los Angeles County jail inmate escaped Tuesday but this time he was caught quickly after three teen-age boys spotted him hiding in bushes.

The medium-security inmate at Pitchess Detention Center walked away from a firefighting crew Tuesday morning and was found hiding near the prison complex after the teen-agers flagged down a sheriff's sergeant, officials said.

Edgar Ornelas, 22, of Los Angeles was returned to the jail about four hours after he escaped.

Barefoot and wearing a blue T-shirt and shorts rather than his orange prison uniform, Ornelas showed little emotion as he was led out of the patrol car to be photographed by investigators.

He was expected to be transported to the inmate reception center at the Twin Towers Detention Center to be booked on a felony escape charge.

Investigators say Ornelas will be considered a high escape risk for the duration of his jail term, and will be transferred to a high-security unit at Men's Central Jail.

``His days of being outside in the sunshine are over,'' said Detective Mike Staley of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Major Crimes Bureau. ``Even if he's picked up on a jaywalking charge, he'll be sent to Men's Central and kept locked down.''

Ornelas' escape came as the county Board of Supervisors criticized the Sheriff's Department for a lapse in security that allowed inmate Kevin Jerome Pullum to escape July 6 from the Men's Central Jail. Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich said the Pitchess incident was different because Ornelas had escaped from a work crew for nonviolent offenders.

Ornelas had served about half of his one-year sentence for burglary and false impersonation charges, and was on his second day of fire crew training, officials said.

He was among a group of about 48 inmates on the fire crew who were doing exercises and hiking through the hillsides surrounding the jail.

When the group returned from the hike just before 10 a.m., Ornelas was missing, said Deputy Daniel Andrews, the fire suppression deputy at the jail.

At the time of the escape, the inmates were being supervised by three members of the county Fire Department, Andrews said, adding that only nonviolent inmates with a history of good behavior are allowed to serve on the fire crew.

After the escape, Santa Clarita sheriff's deputies on patrol were placed on alert, deputies searched the prison grounds from nearby hillsides, and a Sheriff's Department helicopter swarmed over the facility.

Meanwhile, a 13-year-old and two 15-year-old boys riding along The Old Road on a bus spotted Ornelas hiding in a bush near Parker Road. When they saw a sheriff's sergeant on patrol near Hillcrest Road, they ran off the bus and told him what they had seen.