An inmate missing from a prison camp in San Bernardino County for more than a month was apprehended this week in Arizona, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has announced.

Casey J. Lyons, 30, was reported as a walkaway from the Prado Conservation Camp near Chino on the morning of April 7.

Prison staff searched all camp buildings and the grounds but were unable to locate Lyons, who was serving a multiyear sentence at the camp for the second time.

A search was conducted by CDCR officials, Cal Fire and other local law enforcement agencies, but he continued to elude capture.

On Monday, more than a month after he disappeared, Lyons was located and apprehended by special agents in Bullhead City, Arizona, a town located on the Arizona-Nevada border, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas.

He is awaiting extradition to California where he will likely face new charges for his escape.

Lyons has two previous felony convictions recognized under California’s three-strikes law. He arrived at the Prado Conservation Camp in August 2019 following a conviction in Shasta County for assault with a deadly weapon and second-degree robbery.

He was paroled in June 2021, but was convicted in Lassen County for violating the terms of his parole after he was found guilty of possessing ammunition as a felon.

He arrived to the Prado camp for the second time on July 22, 2022 to serve a two-year, eight-month sentence.

The Prado Conservation Camp is located about two miles south of Chino and is operated through a joint partnership between CDCR and Cal Fire. Inmates fulfilling their sentence at the camp are part of a workforce that responds to wildfires in Southern California, as well as working on community-based projects throughout the region.

Lyons’ exact role at the camp was not immediately clear.

There are several inmate fire camps across the state and inmate firefighters have played a critical role in battling California brush fires for decades. In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law that allowed for inmates who fought on the fire lines to have some of their previous convictions expunged to allow them to seek full-time employment.

The effort to hire former convicts into fire departments has been mixed, according to reporting from the Associated Press.

The CDCR says 99% of all inmates to walk away from California inmate camps have been apprehended since 1977.