The Maine Department of Corrections issued a news release at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday saying that Jason Brown was apprehended near the facility. The news release stated Brown left the facility unauthorized at 1 a.m.

Dennison said her department and the regional communications center were not alerted of the escape. Thomaston Police Chief Tim Hoppe also said he and his department were not notified.

Brown’s earliest release date had been March 2020, according to the prison website. He was serving a seven-year prison term for arson out of Kennebec County. Brown, 33, was convicted of setting fire to a house in Augusta where two people were sleeping. Charges of attempted murder were dismissed.

Correction officers were conducting a road block in the Brooklyn Heights section of Thomaston early Wednesday morning. Motorists were asked to open their trunks and officers looked inside the vehicles. The checkpoint ended when there was a report of a possible sighting of the prisoner.

The is the second time in two months that a prisoner has walked away from the Bolduc Center. The last one occurred Aug. 16. That prisoner was found six hours later in Rockland.

The Bolduc Center has 222 inmates, according to the state website, with a staff of 65. The prisoners there are classified as minimum security with less than three years left to serve.