After three days on the run, the inmates who escaped from the Charleston Correctional Facility are back behind bars.
State Police and Penobscot County Sheriffs found 20-year-old Randall Moulton of Bangor and 24-year-old Phillip Gardiner of Belfast late Wednesday night after receiving a tip they were at a boat launch on Pushaw Lake in Glenburn.
"The deputies and the troopers developed a plan, went out there in the cover of darkness and took them into custody without incident," said Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland.
McCausland said when the inmates were found, they were armed. Both had knives in their immediate vicinity, but neither used them.
He said, "We're fortunate that this escape ended when it did so we brought these two into custody before anything more serious could have been affected, as these guys were on the run and getting desperate."
Now Moulton and Gardiner are being held at the Penobscot County Jail. It's a much different facility than the one they walked out of Sunday night.
"[The Charleston Correctional Facility] is a minimum security facility, so it's very easy to escape. The real deterrent is that if you do escape, you're going to get sent back to a maximum security prison and you're going to get a long sentence for escaping," said District Attorney Chris Almy.
Both Moulton and Gardiner were serving time for burglary and other charges.
Moulton had just started his sentence last month and was due to be released in September of next year. Gardiner was sentenced in November of 2009 and still had more than two years left to serve.
Almy said, "These prisoners need to understand that that is a center designed for their rehabilitation, so they can move back into the community. And if they're going to abuse that, they're going to end up paying for it."
Almy said he will likely ask the court to put the inmates away for another two years on top of their former sentences.
Moulton and Gardiner are due to be in court on Friday.
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