Inmate Caught After 'Walking Away' from Acton Fire Camp

Miguel Velasquez

[KHTS] – A minimum-security inmate who “walked away” from the Acton Conservation Camp in Los Angeles Thursday night was captured Friday night, according to Sgt. Valdivia with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitations.

Inmate Miguel Velasquez, 22, was last seen at the facility, located near the community of Acton, around 11:55 p.m., during an inmate count, according to a news release.

Velasquez was captured by authorities around 10:50 p.m. Friday in Anaheim.

He was being held for a seven-year, eight-month sentence for vandalism and criminal gang activity, and was scheduled to be released on March 31, 2016.

The Acton Conservation Camp #11 has been part of a cooperative partnership with the Los Angeles County Fire Department since the 1970s. Camp 11 crews respond to brush fires and other natural disasters ranging from the Mexico border to the Oregon border, according to the website. As of Oct. 22, 73 inmates were held at Camp 11.

“Walk away” is a term used when an inmate leaves without permission at an institution, such as a fire camp, that is not as secure as a prison, according to CDC spokesperson Jeffrey Callison. If an inmate were to leave a prison without permission, this would be called an “escape.”

“We typically do not go into details about the exact method of walking away or escape because of the obvious security implications,” Callison said in an email.

Inmate Caught After 'Walking Away' from Acton Fire Camp