An inmate escaped from the Oak Glen Conservation Camp late Saturday and he was captured Sunday in Beaumont, about 13 hours after he went missing from the facility north of Yucaipa, a California Department of Corrections official told Patch.
The inmate, identified as 22-year-old Shaun Perkins, escaped sometime between an 11 p.m. role call at the camp and midnight, CDC Sgt. Hector Morua, who works at the Oak Glen location, said in a phone interview.
Morua said Perkins managed to scale a 15-foot fence, with razor wire at the top, to get free from the minimum-security facility for non-violent criminals "that have been cleared for firefighting duties."
The camp is located on about 27 acres, part in San Bernardino County and part in Riverside County, below the San Gorgonio Wilderness, according to a CDC description.
Officials at the CDC camp put out a robo-call to neighbors in the area and searched through the night, Morua said. Officials discovered Perkins' shirt around 10 a.m. Sunday, about a half-mile from the camp.
That's when they called out a sheriff's canine unit to track down Perkins' smell and follow his trail.
The bloodhound led them on a path to Beaumont where the inmate had gone, Morua said.
Perkins - who had been at the Oak Glen facility about two weeks - was found about nine miles away near the Beaumont Sports Park and taken into custody by 1:10 p.m. Sunday, according to Morua.
Witnesses told Patch the area of Vasili Lane at Cougar Way in Beaumont was blocked off by several law enforcement agencies for a time.
Beaumont police and Riverside County sheriff's personnel assisted in the search for Perkins.
The inmate had been serving a term for first-degree burglary and purchase/receiving a stolen vehicle, and was slated to be released in October 2014, according to Morua.
Rather than being brought back to the Oak Glen Conservation Camp, Perkins was headed to the California Institution for Men prison in Chino, the sergeant added.
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