York County prison escapee still on run after week loose

The escaped prisoner who walked off from a work release job a week ago and remains uncaught was in the midst of his second stretch in prison for robbery yet still was eligible to be free in the community instead of locked up in a state prison.

Bobby Albert Camp III, 25, left his job at a tire shop on Riverview Road near Interstate 77 July 7 and still is on the loose.

Camp qualified for the pre-release work program, said Stephanie Givens, spokesperson for the S.C. Department of Corrections. However, Camp walked off the job at B & B Tire on Riverview Road in Rock Hill and has not been found.

“We are actively working with law enforcement to find him,” Givens said.

Sheriff’s deputies say Camp should be considered dangerous.

A second inmate who walked off his work release job Friday, Richard Keith Poe, 47, was caught in Charlotte Friday night and now faces escape charges.

The minimum security prison south of Rock Hill has 58 inmates in the work program outside the prison where inmates work in the community. Camp and Poe are the first two escapees this year, Givens said.

Despite serving more than a year in prison in 2007 and 2008 for robbery as a teenager, and a second conviction for the same offense last year, Camp was still able to get into the program that allows inmates to work outside jail while serving a prison sentence.

In the earlier conviction from 2007, Camp was sentenced as a youthful offender and was also sentenced to a state run boot camp type program called “Shock” where offenders receive treatment for problems and includes outside work on a labor crew.

Camp finished probation in 2013 from that offense then six months later was arrested on 22 charges ranging from attempted murder to drug crimes. Camp pleaded guilty in a deal and received seven years in prison in September 2014 and after incarceration was in several prisons before coming to the Catawba pre-release center in York County, Givens said.

A second inmate who walked off his work release job Friday, Richard Keith Poe, 47, was caught in Charlotte Friday night and now faces escape charges.

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 5:48 AM with the headline "York County prison escapee still on run after week loose."