An East Moline Correctional Center inmate who escaped Wednesday was supposed to be in a segregation unit separated from the general population, according to the head of the union representing correctional officers.

David Stodolny, 41, escaped about 8:50 a.m. Wednesday but was apprehended about 10 a.m. about a quarter mile from the prison. Although officials have not said how he escaped, state Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, on Wednesday said Mr. Stodolny escaped by climbing over a fence.

Rock Island County Sheriff Jeff Boyd said Mr. Stodolny allegedly broke into a nearby unoccupied home.

"He (Mr. Stodolny) should have been in segregation," said Gregg Johnson, a supply supervisor at the prison and president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 46. Although EMCC's segregation unit holds 31 inmates, Mr. Johnson said it is "always full."

Mr. Johnson said the segregation unit places an inmate in isolation for 23 hours a day in a single cell. Mr. Stodolny was scheduled for segregation due to a verbal altercation with a correctional officer.

"We've (AFSCME) been complaining about segregation being full all of the time," Mr. Johnson said. "We're having to release people out of segregation on a daily basis.

"We try to ship them out. We have 26 inmates waiting to be transferred out for disciplinary reasons," he said. "There's nowhere to ship them. It's logjammed."

Mr. Stodolny was transferred to the Pontiac Correctional Center after his capture, Mr. Johnson said.

The escape was the second from EMCC since October when Doss Kuykendall left and was recaptured two days later in Albany. The Illinois Department of Corrections would not reveal how Mr. Kuykendall escaped.

On Thursday, AFSCME filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to halt the closure of seven IDOC facilities proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn and any transfer of prisons caused by the closures. Filed in Alexander County in southern Illinois, the suit claims Gov. Quinn's proposal is worsening overcrowding at state prisons.

On Thursday, Illinois Department of Corrections spokesperson Stacey Solano said Mr. Stodolny's escape was "in no way related to population numbers at East Moline Correctional Center or the (proposed) closures."