HOLYOKE — An inmate who walked away from a community service job site in Holyoke early Thursday morning was found and arrested by police hours later on High Street in Springfield.
Alexis Rivera-Nieves, 22, of Springfield, was cleaning and painting for the Holyoke Housing Authority in the city when he asked to use the restroom and fled from the site around 9:15 a.m., according to Robert Rizzuto, communications specialist for the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department.
Rizzuto said Rivera-Nieves was taken back into custody around 1:15 p.m. on High Street in Springfield by a deputy sheriff who worked for a U.S. Marshals Service task force.
Rizzuto said he did not know where the job site was in Holyoke or if Rivera-Nieves had help getting to Springfield.
Rivera-Nieves was a minimum-security inmate who was incarcerated at the Hampden County Pre-Release Center in Ludlow, Rizzuto said. He will now be jailed at the medium-security Hampden County Correctional Center following his escape and will not have the opportunity to return to minimum-security, Rizzuto said.
“This person was classified to minimum security because they were not considered a danger to the community after a thorough intake and classification process, and a subsequent track record of good behavior while incarcerated,” Rizzuto said in a statement. “However, anytime someone absconds from a correctional supervision situation, it is always a matter of caution, so we notify the public.”
According to Rizzuto, Rivera-Nieves was sentenced in 2019 for property crimes including breaking and entering, larceny and trespassing. He was scheduled to be released in September. Further charges may be pending based on the results of the sheriff department’s investigation, Rizzuto said.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.