ANCHORAGE — Department of Corrections inmates walking away from halfway houses in Alaska’s largest city are becoming a public safety problem, according to the Anchorage Police Department.
Inmates walked away from Anchorage halfway houses 86 times so far in 2016, said police spokeswoman Renee Oistad. That includes one prisoner who walked away from the Cordova Center twice.
“Once in February, and again in April, and so obviously there’s a problem with that,” Oistad said.
Across the state from Jan. 1 through Thursday, 102 people have walked away from a halfway house, said Corrections Department spokesman Corey Allen-Young in an email response to questions. Of those who walked away, 28 remained at large.
Anchorage Police on Wednesday obtained an escape warrant for Bryce McCarter, 23, who walked away from Cordova Center. The 5-foot-7, 150-pound man was last seen wearing a gray shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes, according to a police press release.
“The main reason why they’re put in a halfway house is because there’s not enough room to put every person in our institutions. We’d be crowded,” Allen-Young said. “And also, it’s cheaper. And also, it helps transition them back to society.”
About 20 percent of people in halfway houses are awaiting trial or sentencing, he said. Placement decisions are made case-by-case.
“You can’t be an arsonist, you can’t be a sex offender, and you can’t have any violent assaults,” he said.
The penalty for walking away varies but prisoners arrested again go back to an institution and time is added to their sentence.
“The majority of the individuals that are in halfway houses that are walkaways are walking out because of some drug-related occurrence,” Allen-Young said. “So they’re either trying to get drugs, involved with drugs, or took some drugs and don’t want it to show on a test.”
The department is reviewing policies to find a solution he said.
