The Marysville Jail is not anywhere near as bad as the Snohomish County Jail, but an escape from the former recently still is embarrassing.

The county jail situation is ridiculous. It is one of the top places locally to commit suicide, 11 in the past few years. Two just last month. It faces lawsuits because of its poor procedures for keeping inmates safe – especially from themselves.

By comparison, the Marysville Jail is Fort Knox, with no previous escapes in 25 years. But it did get egg on its face when inmate Rhyan Vasquez escaped Sept. 22.

Vasquez, 19, who has since been recaptured, was set to be booked for suspicion of first-degree robbery. But he left the building after he, along with eight other inmates, was returning from a bible study class in a visitation area.

How could that happen? There were only nine people to count.

An internal investigation is continuing, but we can only guess that no one counted the inmates as they returned to their cells after the bible study class.

What makes this situation even more egregious is that Vasquez not only escaped, but that no one noticed for two days, until his attorney showed up to see him. How can it not be noticed that someone is not in their cell? A simple head count should show that one is missing.

Fact is, jail policy says not only are inmates supposed to be counted when they are moved, but also four times each day in their cells.

The jail serves not only Marysville but also Arlington, Lake Stevens and the Tulalip Tribes. It has 57 beds, a common area, and inmates are housed in areas that are like dorms and cubicles.

It must be a monotonous job counting prisoners four times a day. Probably 99.9 percent of the time 100 percent of the inmates are accounted for.

But this .1 percent of the time is embarrassing. The department did a great getting Vasquez back in jail so quickly, but this isn’t no harm no foul.

Jail officials vow this will never happen again. But we have to wonder how it was able to happen at all.