Blane Donald MacDougal, who escaped from Ferndale minimum security prison Apr 19, was serving time for the killing of a gay man in Texas as well as for raping three women while on parole.
MacDougal, 60, is considered a dangerous offender. The RCMP say alerts have been issued nationwide for his arrest. Officials in the US have also been alerted, says Seattle FBI Agent Roberta Burroughs.
According to National Parole Board documents, MacDougal escaped from a Canadian jail in 1968, stole a car and fled to Texas. There, he met a hitchhiker.
The pair picked up three gay men in bars and robbed them. One man was subsequently left to die in a field from exposure.
MacDougal served almost 10 years in jail in Texas for that crime.
In 1978, he was released on day parole and kidnapped and raped two young women within four months. Days after being granted day parole again in 1989, he kidnapped and raped another young woman.
“This offence occurred just hours after attending a sex offender relapse prevention group,” Parole Board documents say.
MacDougal was transferred to minimum security last year after participating in sex offender programs and showing stability, documents say.
Corrections Canada spokesperson Dave Lefebvre says correctional plans for offenders take into account their response to rehabilitation in determining prison placement. Progress in programs such as sex-offender rehabilitation is taken into account, Lefebvre says.
Federal Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day has ordered a review of the current prisoner risk-assessment framework.
“Laws and policies currently governing the classification of offenders were formulated prior to this government taking office,” he recently said. “Our government has begun to repair a failed Liberal government corrections system by initiating and completing a comprehensive corrections review.”
Day is a member of the Conservative Party which has been in power since January 2006.
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