4th escape for inmate who managed to get out of northeastern Colorado prison

Escaped Colo. inmate believed to be in state

STERLING, Colo. — An inmate who escaped from a maximum-security prison in northeastern Colorado has managed to get away three previous times.

Forty-eight-year-old Douglas J. Alward remained at large Tuesday, two days after fleeing the Sterling Correctional Facility.

Officials say he escaped from another prison in 1980 by running from a prison bus with an inner tube and jumping into the Arkansas River. He was captured as he floated in the river.

Another time, Alward escaped through a hole in a prison kitchen wall. In 1991, he escaped during a court appearance after overpowering a guard.

Alward would have been eligible for parole in October and had worked his way to a classification considered just below minimum risk.