Palmer escapee fails in border run

A man who allegedly escaped Monday from the Palmer Correctional Center was picked up a little more than 24 hours later at the Alaska-Canada border, just past Northway Junction by U.S. Customs guards.

Michael Kolkman, 36, had walked away from the minimum security side of Palmer Correctional after the 8 p.m. head count Monday, July 8. Kolkman was serving the last few years of a 15-year sentence on a sexual abuse of a minor conviction. He was incarcerated Aug. 7, 1991, and was to be released in 2004, according to Bruce Richards, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.

Customs agents and airports had been alerted about the escaped prisoner when DOC sent out a description alert. Kolkman allegedly was walking across the border Tuesday night into the Yukon Territory when agents detained him for an interview. They then decided he matched the description of the missing person, according to an Alaska State Trooper release, and turned him over to the troopers.

Northway troopers took Kolkman to the Fairbanks Correctional Center, where he was held pending being transported back to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

Kolkman faces possible additional charges of escape, which is handled as a new court case, Richards said.

Escape from a correctional facility while being held on a felony charge is a Class B felony, which carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years and a $50,000 fine.