The search is still on for an inmate who escaped Thursday afternoon from the Jessamine County jail.

Shortly before 1 p.m., work-release inmate Jonathan Owens escaped from the Restricted Custody Center, a building for minimal-custody prisoners next to the main jail in Nicholasville, said Jessamine County Jailer Jon Sallee.

"He was being transported back to the main facility when he got away from the guard and ran out the door," Sallee said.

Nicholasville police and Jessamine County deputy sheriffs searched in an area between Union Mill Road and Sulphur Well Road, including the soccer fields east of Nicholasville, while Lexington police searched from a helicopter. The search from the air was suspended shortly before 4 p.m.

East Jessamine High, East Jessamine Middle and Nicholasville Elementary schools were all put on a brief lockdown to make sure Owens could not enter those buildings, Jessamine County Superintendent Lu Young said.

Sallee said Owens is not considered dangerous.

Owens, 25, is a white man with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet, 11 inches tall, weighing 162 pounds. He was serving time on cold-check charges, and Nicholasville police were about to make additional cold-check charges involving cold checks, Sallee said.

Owens was last seen wearing a T-shirt and blue jean shorts but no shoes.