Joel Back: Pardelup Prison Farm escapee appears in court after police arrest following drink request on farm

A 42 year-old man has appeared in court for the first time after being on the run from authorities for nearly two days when he escaped from a minimum-security prison west of Mt Barker. Joel Back briefly appeared in custody in Albany Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning on one charge of escaping from lawful custody. Mr Back was represented by a Legal Aid duty lawyer who requested a four-week adjournment for legal advice. He was allegedly caught by police late on Monday afternoon after asking a farmer near Kendenup for a glass of water. The farmer then alerted police and Mr Back was later arrested about 5.30pm without incident when he was found walking on the road towards the Kendenup townsite. He was still wearing his green prison uniform and police say he had no apparent injuries but was fatigued. A large search for Mr Back was launched on Sunday after he allegedly escaped from Pardelup Prison Farm, a jail in the Great Southern which is designed to ready inmates to reintegrate back into society. Great Southern police utilised officers and detectives, along with a drone, to locate the prison escapee, focusing on dense bushland and farming properties in the area around Forrest Hill. A member of the public reported a believed sighting of Mr Back about 7am on Monday, as police quickly descended on the intersection of Boyup Road and Eulup-Manurup Road, north-west of Mt Barker. Mr Back was sentenced to one year and two months imprisonment in February this year for a string of charges including burglary, stealing and fraud. He pleaded guilty to stealing and burglary after breaking into an optometrist on January 7 and stealing $15,000 worth of glasses. Mr Back is the second prison escapee from Pardelup Prison Farm in a year after Blake Cavanough escaped in October 2022. Mr Back is next due to appear in Albany Magistrates Court on November 16.