Sheriff locates convict who escaped from Greene County work release facility

LATEST: The Greene County Sheriff’s Department issued a news release at 10:25 p.m. Sept. 5, 2023, that Philbert Wright has been located and detained.

BLOOMFIELD, Ind. (WISH) — A 30-year-old Bloomfield man considered to be “armed and dangerous” was charged Tuesday with escape, the Greene County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

Court documents show Philbert Levi Wright just before 6:30 a.m. Monday left the Greene Community Corrections Program’s Residential Work Release Facility via the fire exit in the men’s dorm while wearing a GPS bracelet. The tracking device was later found just north of the facility in a grassy area.

He was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall and 160 pounds with brown hair and green eyes, the sheriff’s department says. Its news release did not say what crimes Wright had committed that led to his incarceration.

Wright had pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors in July 2015 to two felony counts of robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, court documents show. He’d been sentenced to 14 years in an Indiana Department of Correction facility.

In August 2022, an addiction recovery specialist with the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility filed a “Successful Completion of Purposeful Incarceration” document. Several hearings commenced to review his sentence.

His sentence was modified in June in Greene Circuit Court, allowing him to complete his time in a work release program through the Greene County Community Corrections Program’s Work Release Facility.

The facility has 70 beds, 50 for men and 20 for women, plus classroom facilities, the Greene County Community Corrections website says. Bloomfield is about a 90-minute drive southwest of downtown Indianapolis.

Anyone who locates Wright was advised to not approach him but to call the sheriff’s department or 911.