Vandalia Correctional Center Escapee in Custody

An inmate who escaped from the Vandalia Correctional Center has been apprehended.

21-year-old Marcus Battice was taken into custody about 7:30am along I-70 near the Vandalia interchange. Tom Shaer of the Illinois Department of Corrections said Battice was walking north on a gravel frontage road next to the interstate where Illinois State Police picked him up. He was taken into custody without incident.

Battice was out for 17-1/2 hours before being apprehended. He was being examined at Vandalia Correctional Center's Health Care Unit and then immediately transferred to maximum security Pontiac Correctional Center, where he will be placed in segregation as an escapee.

Shaer said Battice was in prison on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle. He said there was nothing to indicate Battice was an escape risk. He also said this was the first escape from an Illinois correctional facility in "years". He would have been eligible for parole in January. Battice had served an earlier term for burglary in an Illinois Department of Corrections Boot Camp, from which he graduated in 2010. He had been in prison for the possession of a stolen vehicle conviction since last September. Shaer said Battice also has an extensive non-violent juvenile history.

Shaer said Battice made his escape near the back gate area when he was returning from the commissary, but reports that Battice made his escape through a hole in a fence were inaccurate. The specifics of the incident are still being investigated.