CODY - An inmate from the Park County jail cited overcrowding as a possible motive for why two men fled the jail Monday afternoon.

"I did a couple years in this jail, and I know this jail like the back of my hand," a man who identified himself as Cheyenne Chambers told the Billings Gazette via telephone. He said he was awaiting trial on three counts of delivery of a controlled substance.

"It's at capacity with 41 inmates," Chambers said, "and they were at 64 over the holiday weekend."

Overcrowding in the Park County jail was the focus of a lawsuit by the ACLU, with the county signing an agreement in December 1992 pledging to make efforts to cap the number of inmates at 41.

Jail Administrator Steve Oliver said there were 53 inmates in custody Tuesday, with as many as 60 inmates held at one point during the Christmas holiday. He said the average number of inmates was around 56 over the past 10 days.

"The number will fluctuate," Oliver said. "We were down to 46 last week."

Stephen Pevar is senior staff counsel with the ACLU and was the lawyer who sued the county and negotiated the 1992 agreement.

"I'm very disappointed and angry to hear that the agreement we entered into in good faith may be being violated," said Pevar, who now works for the ACLU in Connecticut.

Pevar said because a new Park County jail will soon open, it is unlikely the ACLU will seek a legal remedy regarding the agreement.

Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric said he works with Oliver regularly to reduce the jail population and said overcrowding is unsafe for inmates and corrections staff.

"There are times we struggle to get people out of jail because the number of inmates in there is too high," Skoric said, "and that's not a position we want to be in."

Chambers said one of the escapees had been sleeping on the floor under another inmate's bunk for three days. Chambers had slept on the floor for 10 straight days since his arrival at the jail, he said.

He was present in the exercise yard during the escape, Chambers said, but declined to comment on what took place. He first said he did not see the incident, and later said he was not involved and did not want to act as a snitch.

Since the escape, Chambers said, jailers have cut off inmates' access to TV, snacks, showers, mail, games and books. He called the actions retaliation by jailers for the escape and said inmates have a right not to answer questions about the escape.

"I'm not responsible for what another grown man does," Chambers said. "We didn't do anything, and they're punishing us for exercising our Miranda rights.

"The community needs to know what's going on," he said. "We're not disgruntled inmates."

Sheriff Scott Steward said TV, snacks and games were privileges used to help "keep those guys in line."

Oliver said there was a strict lockdown in effect following the escape, but said, "Some of these things are related to other issues, like inmates not following orders given to them."