The employees unwittingly helped Grant Hardin, a former police chief, walk out of a prison in May, dressed in a fake law enforcement uniform, officials said.

Two employees at an Arkansas prison where an inmate known as the “Devil in the Ozarks” escaped have been fired for policy violations, corrections officials said Thursday as they faced questions from lawmakers who said the escape points to deeper problems.

Skeptical Arkansas lawmakers seemed unwilling to accept Thursday that the escape of a convicted murderer and rapist was the fault of only two prison employees.