Four inmates escape in 2 days

Four Nevada prison inmates walked away from minimum security facilities in just two days last week - three of them from the newly opened Case Grande Transitional Center.

Prison spokesman Fritz Schlottman said Chante Stafford, 35, failed to return to the Las Vegas center from his work shift on Thursday. He was recaptured over the weekend.

But Clifford Brown, 22, and Charles Deverna, 35, both of whom disappeared Friday, are still at large.

Stafford was serving a sentence for battery with substantial bodily harm. Brown and Deverna were both convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle.

In addition, Tommy Bridges was still missing Monday after walking away from the Stewart Conservation Camp in South Carson City. Bridges, a convicted burglar, was last seen Thursday by juveniles near Dat-So-La-Lee on the Stewart Indian Colony.

The conservation camps are for minimum security inmates who are regarded as minimal threats to escape.

Casa Grande is the state's new transitional program, opened in December for inmates who are approaching the end of their sentences and have good enough records to be allowed out during the day on work release.

"We just don't understand why," Schlottman said. "Some of them are within days of getting out and they do this."

He said when recaptured all will face escape charges. If convicted on escape charges the inmates would face a year or more in prison.

Schlottman also said prison officials are reviewing the procedures and operations of Casa Grande, in particular, but he pointed out that, since the inmates there all have jobs during the day, all they have to do to escape is not return after work.

-- Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.