BANGOR – Freedom was fleeting Tuesday for an inmate who walked away from the Charleston Correctional Center.
About two hours after leaving the minimum-security facility, William McDevitt, 31, whose most recent address was in the Bangor area, was back in police custody and facing a charge of escape, a Class C crime that could add up to five more years to his stay behind bars.
McDevitt was taken Tuesday to the Maine Correctional Facility in Warren, where he is expected to serve out the rest of his time.
McDevitt arrived at the Charleston facility about a week and a half ago, according to Director Jeffrey Morin. He had a little more than a year remaining on a two-year sentence, primarily for thefts and burglaries in Cumberland and York counties.
“He walked off from his dorm,” Morin said. “There’s a small outdoor recreation area out behind it. He was out there and just took off.”
McDevitt’s absence was noticed during a routine head count shortly after 3 p.m., Morin said. The facility was locked down and prisoners were sent to their rooms and interviewed. Local law enforcement agencies were notified and told to be on the lookout for McDevitt and a vehicle he was believed to have left in.
“He had help. He was picked up out behind the facility by a vehicle,” Morin said. “There is information from local people who helped us” to provide a description of the vehicle believed to belong to an accomplice.
Though details remained sketchy late Tuesday, Trooper David Yankowsky of the Maine State Police said McDevitt was found at a residence on George Street in Bangor. An accomplice had yet to be charged by late Tuesday.
The Charleston facility is what Morin called a “work camp” that houses about 145 inmates at any given time.
A recent arrival, McDevitt had not yet been given a job assignment, Morin said.
Though there are no fences, escapes from Charleston are fairly rare, Morin said Tuesday. The most recent escapes occurred in 2004 and 1999.
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