The Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement testified in front of a Senate panel Monday.

Those lawmakers are now investigating how two inmates, Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, who were both serving life sentences, got out of prison using forged documents.

"I won't say smart but I will say clever fraud ring among a group of inmates at Franklin CI (Correctional Institute)," Gerald Bailey, FDLE Commissioner said.

Investigators say the ringleader was Nydeed Nashaddai, 48, of Pinellas County.

In 2009, they say he began serving 20 years at Franklin Correctional Institute and then just months later, a forged document set him free for a short time.

Detectives say he used real documents as templates to create the phony paperwork.

Similar forged documents were used, they say, that allowed Jenkins and Walker to also walk out of prison before law enforcement quickly recaptured them.

Now, officials are creating a new system to create a more secure process.

"That anticipates that the clerk knows that the document came from the court and the court knows that the document was delivered to the clerk," said Karen Rushing, Clerk of the Circuit Court in Sarasota.

In essence, the new system will make sure the state attorneys, judges, and jails are all on the same page.

While the new program is being implemented, the FDLE investigation now intensifies. Scientists, DNA experts, and crime lab ...making sure the state attorney, the judge, and the jail are all on the same page.

The FDLE Commissioner says they are also combing through thousands of phone calls and text messages between Jenkins and Walker before their brief escape and says he expects the investigation will widen to include other inmates.

"We have pinpointed a variety of suspects and Mr. Chairman, we have other arrests on the horizon," said Bailey.

The new high-tech system is expected to be implemented within the year.

Meantime, judges must verify all release orders written on paper.