Elkhart County police are looking for a third inmate who they say never returned to Elkhart County Community Corrections in Goshen this week.
According to a reports Evan Maurice Curry was released to go to work on Tuesday. He was supposed to report back at 4:51 a.m. on Wednesday. We're told he failed to return to lawful confinement and is considered absent without leave.
Earlier this week Dontae Bush and George Sanks were reported missing from the facility. Sanks was arrested Wednesday and Bush was arrested Thursday.
Calls to the director of the Corrections facility went unreturned. But a local judge who is the president of the Advisory Board for the facility said the system is working. Judge Charles Wicks talked to FOX28 Friday about touring the facility Friday morning as part of a regular board meeting. He said, he thinks the public should know they are concerned and doing everything they can, but he cautions it is a minimum security facility. Wicks said ,they have video cameras everywhere and he said the inmates there are generally non violent, low level offenders. "Is there a risk of escape? Yes, there is with any minimum security facility there is. What's the alternative? to put everyone in prison and double everyone's taxes so we can build more prisons. A lot of people don't want that either," said Wicks.
Wicks said most of these work release inmates are in the program due to a plea agreement between the prosecutor and defense attorney. And he said these escapees are usually low risk, for example, dui offenders, and if they escape, they are picked up in a short period of time.
But that's not a big consolation for those who live close to the corrections facility. Stacey Callahan said, "Something else has got to be done instead of, you know, 'We'll catch them eventually because sometimes they don't." Callahan also said she wishes they had a system of warning residents nearby when there's an escape.
As for changes to the facility Judge Wicks said at their board meeting they talked about possibly putting a delay on the doors. That would mean that when you press the bar it doesn't open immediately. He said that gives a little bit of time for whoever is leaving to re-think what they're doing or for law enforcement to be notified.
