Inmate who escaped camp is caught

Authorities late Thursday said an inmate firefighter who escaped a Central Coast conservation camp by cutting a hole through a perimeter fence is back in custody.

Bobby Gleason, 37, was discovered missing from Ventura Conservation Camp No. 46, in Camarillo, at 11:30 p.m., said Lt. Derrick Taylor, camp commander. Staff searched the camp and found that Gleason, who was serving time for burglary, had cut a hole in a fence and walked away.

The camp is in an agricultural area, next to raspberry and strawberry fields.

It remains unclear what Gleason used to cut the fence, Taylor said. No details were immediately available on how or where Gleason was captured.

Security at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation conservation camps includes frequent head counts. Inmates are counted “probably 12 times a day,” Taylor said. Gleason was last seen at 10:20 p.m.

“It was a very small window” of time for the escape, Taylor said.

Gleason was convicted of burglary in San Diego County and sentenced to nine years as a so-called second striker. He was scheduled for release Aug. 6, 2019.

There are 44 conservation camps across the state, housing close to 4,000 inmates. Fire crews composed of prisoners have been part of the state’s wildfire-fighting arsenal since the late 1940s.

In February, a female inmate firefighter died after being struck by a falling boulder in Malibu. She was the first female inmate in state history to lose her life while battling a wildfire.

Of all the offenders who have escaped from an adult institution, camp or community-based program since 1977, 98.7% have been apprehended, the corrections department said.

“It doesn’t happen very often,” Taylor said. “But it has happened.”