EX-CON JUST KEEPS FINDING HIS WAY BACK TO PRISON

The more Milton Thomas Walton gets out of prison, the more he finds new
ways to return.

Little more than a year ago, Walton told a federal judge that his escape
from a halfway house less than two months before his release date "wasn't
the brightest thing I've ever done."

On Thursday, having completed a one-year sentence on that escape charge and
then violating the terms of supervised release, Walton was sentenced to yet
another year in captivity.

He had been sentenced on March 4, 1997, to one year in prison and three
years' supervised release for escaping from custody just 54 days before his
sentence for a 1990 bank robbery conviction was to end.

He had pleaded guilty to walking away from Freedom Ranch, a halfway house
near Turley, on Sept. 3, 1996.

On April 3, the U.S. Probation Office filed a petition claiming that Walton
had tested positive for marijuana eight times since his release. The
petition also cited two positive tests for cocaine use. The office also
alleged that Walton had made an unauthorized trip to Texas in December.

Walton did not dispute the allegations Thursday. He vowed to U.S. District
Judge Sven Erik Holmes that "I won't be back in this situation again. As of
this moment, there won't be any more drug use."

The judge ordered him to spend a year in a facility that provides
substance-abuse help.