FBI Nabs Alleged Metro Correctional Center Escapee

One of the two men who allegedly staged an escape from the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago earlier this week was located and arrested late last night (December 20, 2012). Agents and officers assigned to the Violent Crimes Task Force of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took Joseph “Jose” Banks into custody without incident at about 11:30 p.m. on Chicago’s north side. The arrest was announced by Thomas R. Trautmann, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI.

Banks and his MCC cellmate, Kenneth Conley, have been the subjects of an intense manhunt involving the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Prisons, and the Chicago Police Department, following their alleged escape from the MCC on December 18th. The search for Banks ended with his arrest in the 2300 block of North Bosworth in Chicago. Conley was not found with Banks last night, and the search for him continues.

In announcing the apprehension, Mr. Trautmann thanked the men and women of the many law enforcement agencies that participated in the around-the-clock efforts that led to last night’s arrest. “Agents and officers from a multitude of our law enforcement partner agencies worked together diligently to locate and arrest Mr. Banks. That collaboration was key to the success of the search, and efforts continue at the same pace with respect to Mr. Conley, who remains at-large at this time.”

Banks is scheduled to appear this morning at 11:30 a.m. in Courtroom 2541 of the Dirksen Federal Courthouse, 219 South Dearborn in Chicago, before United States Magistrate Judge Sidney I. Schenkier to be formally charged with the escape. If convicted of the charged offense, Banks faces a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The public is reminded that a criminal complaint is not evidence of guilt and that all defendants in a criminal case are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.