Full Notification

A minimum-security state prison inmate is on escape status after leaving the Rapid City Community Work Center without authorization earlier today.

Inmate Ernest Foos, age 54, walked away from the Department of Corrections facility housing minimum-security inmates and Community Transition Program parolees
this afternoon. He is a white male, 6-foot-tall, 195 pounds with partially gray hair and hazel eyes.

Foos is serving several sentences from Lawrence County, including:

9 years and 7 months for conspiracy to commit grand theft;
a consecutive 2 years and 5 month sentence for forgery; and
4 years and 7 months for conspiracy to commit forgery.

Foos is also serving a 4 year, 7 month sentence for forgery out of Pennington County.

Leaving a non-secure correctional facility without authorization constitutes second- degree escape, a class 5 felony, and is punishable by a maximum of 5 years in prison.
South Dakota Codified Law 22-11A-5 states that any person who conceals any prisoner knowing that the prisoner has escaped is guilty of a Class 5 felony.

There are more than 700 minimum-security inmates housed across the state, including more than 200 in Rapid City.

Instructions:

Anyone who sees Foos or knows of his whereabouts should contact law enforcement immediately.