2 convicts flee Bowden prison

Police are looking for two inmates who walked away from the Bowden Institution in central Alberta.

Tod James Purvis, 42, and Nathan Mario Paolinelli, 28, escaped on Monday night from the minimum-security farm annex of the federal prison, about 100 kilometres north of Calgary.

Both were serving sentences for property and drug-related crimes, said the RCMP on Tuesday. They have been charged with unlawfully being at large.

Purvis is described as about five feet, 10 inches tall, 190 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.

Paolinelli is also about five feet, 10 inches tall, 181 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

It's believed both were wearing casual clothing and not prison uniforms.

The reduced-security annex features a 316-hectare farm that includes a composting operation, cattle feedlot and hay and barley crops. About three dozen inmates and three staff live on the property adjacent to the medium-security prison.

The federal government is phasing out inmate-run farms over the next two years because they cost too much to operate.