Hugo Selenski's escape from Luzerne County Correctional Facility is raising questions about how effectively the institution can confine accused criminals, but the Wilkes-Barre jailbreak has not unsettled Centre County wardens.

Gene Fischi, Luzerne County's warden, called for an inspection of the jail's windows after Selenski -- an inmate charged with two murders and suspected of three others -- removed a seventh-floor window, climbed down a 60-foot rope made of 12 bed sheets and used a mattress to scale a barbwire fence Friday night.

However, David Immel, warden of Centre County Prison in Bellefonte, said a similar escape would be unlikely in his facility because it does not have many windows.

There have been few escapes in the jail's history. The last took place about 20 years ago, Immel said. In that escape, an inmate scaled a courtyard wall by standing on a chair, but was caught shortly afterward, he said.

It is most likely that prisoners would escape the jail by running away from a work or treatment program outside the facility, Immel said.

Jeff Rackovan, assistant to the warden of State Correctional Institution at Rockview, also said it is uncommon for prisoners to escape from within a prison or jail.

"We have never had anyone escape from within the jail," Rackovan said. Barbwire fences far from the prison building, as well as watchtowers, prevent inmates from leaving their confines, Rackovan said.

The last inmate to escape from the Rockview prison did so in the early 1980s while working outside the compound on a weekend. A man sentenced to life imprisonment for murder was able to escape when his girlfriend picked him up in a car from the area he was working in. The details of his break were aired on America's Most Wanted, and he was again arrested, Rackovan said.

Yount's escape changed Rockview's policy on work outside the prison.

"Lifers no longer work outside the fence," Rackovan said.

Coupling inmates in cells originally built for one person, a practice Rockview adopted to stem overcrowded conditions, might have contributed to Selenski's escape in Wilkes-Barre.

Of several criticisms voiced by District Attorney David Lupas about Luzerne County Prison was that prison officials allowed Selenski and his accomplice in the escape, Scott Bolton, to room together.

While Rockview and Centre County prisons both house a number of inmates beyond the facilities' capacities, neither Rackovan nor Immel said overpopulation increases the likelihood of prison breaks.

Overcrowding has caused Centre County Prison, which houses about 170 prisoners in a space built for 78, to send overflow inmates to Clinton County at a price of about $1 million each year, Immel said.

He said expects a new jail to be completed by spring 2005 that will solve his current overcrowding dilemma. With a cost projected at $24 million, the new jail will house about 300 prisoners.

It will have more windows than the current jail, but the windows, measuring about 5 inches wide, will be too narrow for prisoners to escape from, he added. Selenski escaped from a 12-inch-by-18-inch window.

"Because of what happened in Luzerne County and a general concern for community safety, we're going to make sure this new facility is safe and secure," Immel said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.