Search Underway For Escaped Inmate

LOS ANGELES, CA — Authorities are warning Los Angeles County residents to be on the lookout for a prisoner who walked away from a state Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program in Los Angeles County.

Twenty-five-year-old Aleisha Schmitz was seen entering a gray or silver Mercedes-Benz outside the facility shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Schmitz was serving a three-year sentence for second-degree robbery and hit-and-run causing an injury to someone other than herself. She was convicted last year in Los Angeles County.

Officials received an alert from Schmitz’s monitoring device as she fled custody.

"Within minutes, agents from CDCR’s Office of Correctional Safety were dispatched to locate and apprehend Schmitz and notification was made to local law enforcement," according to the corrections department.

She was last seen wearing a blue jacket and gray sweatpants. She is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 197 pounds, has brown hair and brown eyes, a light complexion, according to corrections officials.

The Custody to Community Transitional Reentry Program Schmitz walked away from allows eligible inmates to serve their sentence in the community instead of being locked up in state prison. The program also provides a range of rehabilitative services that assist with alcohol and drug recovery, employment, education, housing, family reunification, and social support.

Officials did not say from which Los Angeles County facility Schmitz walked but there is a 60-bed facility at 2756 James M. Wood Boulevard in Los Angeles and an 82-bed facility at 11121 Bloomfield Avenue in Santa Fe Springs.

Anyone who sees Schmitz or knows her whereabouts was asked to contact law enforcement or call 911.

City News Service contributed to this report.