Inmate escapes from Donovan state prison

Authorities on Saturday night were searching for a 23-year-old prisoner who escaped hours earlier from the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility on Otay Mesa near the Mexican border.

Juan Ledesma walked away from the prison while on a work detail, officials said. Sent to the prison last August on a drug conviction, he was set to be released in September. The prison has 3,900 inmates.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Juan Ledesma. Credit: Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility