Prison inmate flees work-release site

BANGOR – Authorities continued to look Monday for a state prison inmate who walked off a work-release job site Friday, nearly two months before he was to be released.

Randall Knowles, 40, who was serving time for fraud and scheduled to be released in July, had a disagreement with his boss at All Phase Quality Construction in Bangor and walked away, said Sgt. Darryl LaCroix of the Bangor Pre-Release Center. Knowles, who lived previously in Westbrook, left the work site about 11:30 a.m. Once Pre-Release Center officials were notified, they contacted police agencies to be on the alert for Knowles.

LaCroix said that the incident appeared to be spur-of-the-moment, rather than something that was planned.

The work-release program places inmates finishing out their sentences in jobs where they can receive training and skills, helping them to make the transition back into society.

Knowles, who was to be released around July 22, now faces up to five years in prison when he’s caught.

His escape comes a year after a similar incident in which Lance Morgan Palmer, 31, had help from at least one co-worker at a Norridgewock construction site where he was working as part of the pre-release program.

Palmer, who was expected to return to the Bangor center, was seen outside a Dayton residence after leaving Norridgewock and managed to elude police for a month, eventually being captured in Florida.

LaCroix said that Knowles is not considered dangerous.