MCTC inmate sentenced in escape

February 10, 1998|By MARLO BARNHART

MCTC inmate sentenced in escape

A former Hagerstown high school basketball star who escaped while serving five years for robbery at the Maryland Correctional Training Center was sentenced to an additional year and a day Monday, for three days of freedom.

Diamond Christopher Scott, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of escape in Washington County Circuit Court.

Scott failed to report back to prison May 27, 1997, from a work-release program. He turned himself in three days later, court records said.

Scott was working at the Airport Inn on U.S. 11 when he disappeared at 6:40 p.m., authorities said.

Scott received the five-year prison sentence for the August 1994 armed robbery of a couple in Hagerstown City Park and a concurrent sentence for the November 1994 armed robbery of a convenience store, according to court records.

David Powers, a spokesman for the Maryland Division of Corrections, said Scott had a release date of November 1997. He could have faced up to 10 more years in prison.

The work-release program gives inmates who are close to their release dates a chance to work in regular jobs during the day and report back to prison at night.

Powers said inmates rarely try to escape since they are so close to being released.

Powers said inmates earn the special arrangement with good behavior in prison.

"The idea of the work-release program is to get the guy integrated back into society," he said.

Scott was a basketball star at St. Maria Goretti and North Hagerstown high schools before he got into trouble with the law.

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