Another AWOL Bucks County Community Corrections inmate has been apprehended a little more than a month after he allegedly left the minimum security center without permission.
Bristol Township police patrolman Erik Barros, who was off duty, spotted Milton Ainsworth III, 35, of Bristol Township, walking along the Levittown Parkway in Tullytown on Monday morning. Barros, who was familiar with Ainsworth, called in his location, Bristol Township Lt. Guy Sava said.
Tullytown and Bristol Township officers found Ainsworth, who has been missing from the corrections unit in Doylestown since June 18. He was taken into custody without incident, Sava said. Bucks County Sheriffs officers were nearby and responded to the scene to take Ainsworth to Bucks County prison on an arrest warrant charging him with felony escape.
Ainsworth pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court to simple assault and theft charges on May 21. He was sentenced to 3 to 23 months in jail and two years probation. He also received time served since his arrest in February, according to online court documents.
Available court documents do not say when Ainsworth was moved into the Community Corrections unit, a step-down unit designed to help inmates transition back into the community and earn money toward their fines and other costs.
Ainsworth’s arrest leaves three other Community Corrections inmates at large, including one missing since February. The men have been convicted on charges such as probation violations, drugs and theft, according to county records and the prison.
The county program has come under scrutiny since a 23-year-old Bensalem inmate on county work release went AWOL on June 6 and four days later allegedly stabbed a Bensalem police officer who was attempting to arrest him on escape charges.
The suspect, Matthew Miller, is charged with criminal attempted homicide and related charges, as well as escape. The officer, who was protected by his bullet-proof vest, was not seriously injured.
After Miller’s arrest, it was revealed that Bucks County averages one to two inmates a month disappearing without permission from Community Corrections. So far this year, nine Community Corrections participants have gone missing — four in June. A 10th inmate turned himself in two hours after going missing and was disciplined internally, a county official said.
Authorities also learned that Miller had previously been convicted of escape while a Community Corrections inmate in 2011, but that the prior escape did not automatically disqualify him from participating in the program again.
The Community Corrections unit provides a far more relaxed environment than the county jail, officials said. Doors are not locked. The property isn’t fenced in. Inmates live in dorm-style housing. They work on the premises, hold jobs in the community or perform court-ordered community service. There are mandatory daily drug tests, and random inmate counts are conducted at least seven times a day.
Participating inmates must be approved by the court as well as screened by the prison for behavior, mental health and criminal history to make sure they are considered low-risk offenders, prison Director William Plantier said. The risk assessment looks at the sentence imposed, violence of the crime, prior incarceration and classifies an inmate as maximum, medium or minimum security, he said.
Often drugs are behind an inmate going missing, Plantier said. Others are lured away by family or a romantic interest, he added.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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