Man Escapes from Federal Custody Again; Gets Additional Prison Time

32-year-old Ray Allen Flener of Marion, Illinois has earned himself 18 months in federal prison for escaping from custody. In September 2020, Flener pleaded guilty of the charge. This is not the first time Flener has got himself an escape conviction. In 2013, Flener was charged with making a false statement to the FBI and conveying a false threat.

Flener had pleaded guilty of the charge. In 2014, he was sentenced to 48 months in prison. In 2018, Flener was transferred from federal prison to the residential reentry center at Centerstone in Marion, Illinois. Law enforcement were forced to track Flener down as he left Centerstone without returning. The authorities had arrested him.

The escape led to his first conviction of the kind. He had received a sentence of around four-and-a-half months of time served in pretrial detention. In 2020, Flener had left Centerstone again. He just had two months remaining on his sentence. This led to his second conviction for escaping from federal custody. The federal district court in Benton, Illinois imposed the 18-month sentencing.

Flener will serve the new sentencing consecutively with the prison sentence he was already serving. United States Marshals Service conducted the investigation with the assistance from the Illinois State Police and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.