Escaped inmate captured

Authorities on Thursday caught an 18-year-old Pekin man who escaped the Tazewell County Justice Center the night before.

Sean D. Hensley of 1915 Market St. was captured about 7:10 p.m. at an apartment in the 1400 block of North Eighth Street by agents of the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force and Tazewell County sheriff's deputies, said Sheriff Robert Huston. Hensley was taken into custody without incident, the sheriff said.

Huston said that a fugitive warrant was issued for Hensley charging Hensley with escape. Bond on the warrant was set at $250,000.

An investigation into the escape continues, which may result in additional arrests, according to authorities.

Earlier Thursday, Tazewell County officials said they will stop at least part of a program that allows some inmates out of their cells under supervision to perform chores after Hensley ran from the lockup facility Wednesday night.

"We are going to have to take a look at it, the types of activities and where they are taking place, and until then we will have to cease that operation," Tazewell County Chief Deputy Dick Ganschow said Thursday.

Hensley, an inmate at the Tazewell County Justice Center, was with another inmate taking garbage outside the facility under the supervision of a deputy shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday when Hensley ran off.

Hensley was being held at the jail for violating terms of his probation he received after a burglary conviction, and only had been at the jail since July 9, Ganschow said. Hensley had been a "tender," an inmate allowed to perform chores in and around the jail, only about three days.

Huston said there's never been an escape from, nor even attempt to flee the jail.

As to why Hensley fled, Huston said they believe other inmates in the jail may have led the 18-year-old to believe he was going to prison and what that would entail.

"We don't have any indication he was going to prison," Huston said, adding it appeared that if Hensley were going to serve any time, it would have been in the county jail.

Huston noted that the garbage detail was the only duty that allowed inmates access to the outside. He said the supervising corrections officer did nothing wrong and remained with the inmate who did not run.

Deputies and officers from Pekin and Tazewell County, including Illinois State Police troopers and a police bloodhound from Peoria County, took part in the search Wednesday night that led authorities on a two-mile trail that left them empty handed.

Huston said only certain inmates are eligible to be a "tender," or inmate who helps with duties outside their cell. Anyone with a violent background or tendency toward violence or who has a communicable disease is excluded. Inmates also must have ties to the community.

"So there's no incentive to run," Huston said, adding, "It's a privilege."

Primary duties include laundry and kitchen work. Inmates receive $3 per day for commissary purchases, but he said the main perk is the added freedoms outside their cells.

Tazewell County by no means is alone in the use of inmates to perform menial chores.

Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy said some 40 inmates routinely pick up garbage, mow property around the jail, even tend to landscaping and flowers around the courthouse in addition to laundry, kitchen duties and transporting meals to cells.

"It saves taxpayers' money," McCoy said.