JACKSON — A patient at the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System in Jackson has been taken into custody after escaping the facility and roaming the nearby area early Tuesday morning, East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Jeff Travis told the WBRZ Investigative Unit. 

The sheriff's office received a call about the man around 1:30 a.m. after he was seen running near homes wearing only an adult diaper and a shirt.

Notes in an internal report about the incident say "CALLER WITH EAST ADV(ised) CODE BROWN PATEINT HAS ESCAPED ADV THEY DO WANT POLICE ASSIST AND THEY HAVE NO INFO ON WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE OR WHERE HE IS AT"

A video of the man posted to Facebook showed the man entering a nearby garage before running away. 

Deputies added that they found the patient within 20 minutes in a Subway parking lot nearby on a bike that he took from the garage featured in the video. 

The East Feliciana Mental Health System is a state-run hospital that treats mentally ill adults who require immediate or long-term hospitalization as well as forensic patients, who have been remanded there through the legal system.

LDH, which runs the facility, sent a statement late Friday afternoon: "At approximately 1:00am on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System (ELMHS) enacted a Code Brown after a patient eloped from the facility. All corresponding protocols were enacted and followed. The Jackson Police Department was notified at 1:20am and arrived on the grounds at 1:30am. The patient was located at approximately 2:00am and safely returned to the facility. The patient received a medical evaluation upon return; no injuries were identified."

No word on how the patient was able to escape.