2 escapees captured after 3 hours on lam

Two inmates who escaped from a state lockup in Osceola on Monday afternoon were captured within three hours, authorities said.

Austin Magness, 22, and Willie Reynolds, 26, were taken into custody after state prison tracking dogs found them hiding in a farm field shortly after 6 p.m. and less than a mile from the Northeast Arkansas Community Correction Center, according to a news release from the Arkansas Department of Community Correction.

"They were lying down in hopes of avoiding detection," agency spokesman Dina Tyler said in the release.

The pair, clad in yellow inmate uniforms, escaped about 3:30 p.m., apparently by climbing over a fence surrounding the center's recreation yard.

Both arrived at the center five days ago from Jackson County, according to the department. Magness was sentenced to three years for drug and theft convictions. Reynolds was sentenced to 42 months for theft of property.

The center is a minimum-security facility that is a licensed treatment center. Only offenders convicted of nonviolent and nonsexual crimes can be housed there, and their sentences can be no longer than four years. Because of the low security level of the facility, it has no perimeter fence.

Magness and Reynolds are being transferred to the Arkansas Department of Correction, where they can be housed in a more secure facility, Tyler said in the release. The Arkansas State Police is conducting a criminal investigation of the escape, which will be turned over to the prosecuting attorney who will decide on criminal charges for the pair.

Metro on 04/26/2016

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