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HANCOCK COUNTY — Hancock County Community Corrections officers have caught up with an inmate who bolted from custody while being transported to the Hancock County Jail.
Steven Groves, 29, Greenfield, took off around 7 p.m. Wednesday while being walked by a corrections officer a short distance from the community corrections building to the jail next door.
On Friday, the Greenfield Police Department and the Hancock County 911 Center reported Groves had been found and returned to custody.
Inmates who are part of community corrections can either be on home detention, with an ankle monitor, or a part of work-release, where they are free to go to work or appointments, but they must stay at the community corrections building during the night.
If a person violates home detention or work release, the inmate can be sent to jail without a court order, a county official said.
Officials from community corrections did not return calls seeking information on what was going on with Groves or why he was being walked to the jail. However, a county official said Groves either did not follow the rules of community corrections or a court had issued a warrant for his arrest.
Prosecutor Brent Eaton said the county has issued a warrant for Groves as of Thursday. He’s been charged with a Level 5 felony for escape.
Groves was last seen running north with his hands handcuffed in front and no shoes, according to officials. Officers from the Greenfield Police Department and deputies with the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department spent several hours Wednesday night looking for him.
Groves has a criminal history dating as far back as 2009, according to Hancock County court records. His latest criminal charge in the county was filed in November of 2016. He is then listed as taking a plea agreement in September of 2018 for two counts of dealing a controlled substance, both Level 6 felonies.
Records also show he was arrested in October in Boone County and charged with seven felony and misdemeanor charges involving automobile theft. He bonded out on those charges in mid-November, records show.
Robert Harris, public information officer for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, said it’s always tricky transporting inmates to and from the jail.
He noted if just one community corrections prisoner is being escorted to jail, he or she is normally accompanied by just one community corrections officer. However, community corrections operates with different procedures than jailers do, Harris said.
“A lot of times when we walk our inmates to court and back they have leg shackles on,” Harris said. “Community corrections does not do that all the time.”
