A fugitive inmate who scaled a fence to escape from the Somerset County Jail on Monday was caught Saturday afternoon when he turned himself in at a Skowhegan hospital.

Dylan Perkins, 20, of Skowhegan, showed up at Redington-Fairview Hospital on Fairview Avenue with a family member, according to a release from the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

Perkins told an off-duty Skowhegan police officer he was at the hospital and he was arrested without incident about 4:50 p.m. He was medically cleared and taken back to the county jail in East Madison, the release said.

Lt. Carl Gottardi of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Department wouldn’t say why Perkins went to the hospital.

Perkins “wanted to speak with someone, a professional, but we’re not releasing anything else about that,” Gottardi said Saturday night.

Perkins bolted from the jail Monday about 12:30 p.m He abandoned a kitchen work crew in lower security area of the prison compound, scaled a 15-foot-high fence, and ran into the woods wearing a white jumpsuit and black moccasins. Perkins’ status as a trusty, a security designation that allows more freedom than the general population, earned him access to the low-security kitchen area from which he escaped.

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At times, police were just minutes behind Perkins, but he evaded the active manhunt despite the use of a search plane and dog units scouring the nearby woods and roads.

Police have said they don’t know why Perkins, whose jail sentence would have ended July 27, would attempt an escape that could cost him an additional five years behind bars.

Saturday night, Gottardi said authorities were still figuring out where Perkins had been the last five days and whether anyone will face criminal charges for harboring him.

“He hasn’t been too far, from what we gather, the Somerset area,” Gottardi said. “We’re still investigating further, and he’s back at the jail now, so we’re figuring out the before, during and after” of his escape.

Perkins is charged with escape and violating probation, and his court date will be determined Monday.

In 2010, he was sentenced in Somerset County Superior Court to six months on a charge of eluding an officer. He also has been convicted of aggravated criminal mischief.

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Perkins’ escape will automatically trigger a review of the jail’s practices to see whether systems should be improved, Gottardi has said.

The jail break coincided with a separate incident in which two inmates walked away from the Charleston Correctional Facility Sunday night and were also hunted for several days. Those inmates, Phillip Gardiner, 20, and Randal Moulton, 24, were caught Thursday morning.

Gottardi said he’s grateful no one was hurt while Perkins was at large. “Luckily, everything went well,” Gottardi said.

 

 


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