Lori Steineck
The Repository
CANTON — The young woman labeled as an escapee after she failed to return to the Stark Regional Community Correctional Center is back in custody.
The 24-year-old Alliance woman surrendered to authorities at the Stark County Jail on Tuesday, according to jail records.
According to Canton police reports, she was listed as having left the facility on Lesh Street NE, the same facility from which five men fled last week after breaking a window. To date, only two of them have been found.
The reports said she left the facility on a pass but had failed to return.
The police reports listed the investigation into her failure to return as an escape because that is the technical wording on the report to describe the incident, but technically she did not escape the facility, according to police and SRCCC director Craig Prysock.
"(She) did not escape from our facility,” Prysock said. “She was on an approved pass to visit family and chose not to return to our facility. Approved passes to visit family is part of our program as a Community Based Correctional Facility, but they must be earned by the resident through positive and significant participation in our program. In fact, (she) was scheduled to be released from our facility on Feb. 28. We do not have any information on why she did not return.”
She had been convicted of aggravated drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, and part of her probation included the community correctional facility.
Lt. Dennis Garren, police spokesman, said the woman was serving the sentence, leaving the facility “generally results in a probation violation and not an escape charge.”
She remained behind bars Wednesday at the Stark County Jail, held without bond pending court hearings.