People in southeast Georgia— especially in the Sunbury area near Fort Morris — can breath a little easier.

Chaney Tyler Hankins, 23, a state inmate being held in the Effingham County jail, was taken into custody Thursday evening following a short vehicle pursuit in Plainville in northwest Georgia, authorities said.

Stewart Cottingham, a supervisory inspector with the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, said Hankins led agents on a vehicle chase until Georgia State Patrol troopers used the “precision immobilization technique,” commonly known as the PIT maneuver, to stop him. Hankins was taken to a hospital as a precaution.

Cottingham said agents tracked Hankins to Plainville. When they attempted to apprehend him, he fled, Cottingham said. Cottingham was unable to say who owned the vehicle Hankins was driving, but he was alone at the time.

Liberty County Sheriff Steve Sikes, whose officers spent hours Monday afternoon and into the night looking for Hankins after the inmate walked away from a work detail at Fort Morris Historic Site, said, "This is a wonderful way to begin the Memorial Day weekend, knowing he is back in custody.”

Before his capture, Hankins had last been seen on Fort Morris Road in Sunbury.

Sheriff’s Maj. Jeffrey Hein said Hankins walked away from the work detail around 2:15 p.m. Monday.

Hein added that he understood there were five to seven inmates, including Hankins, on the work detail, accompanied by one corrections officer.

Pete Morris, an investigator with the Department of Corrections, said the Effingham County jail is a low- to minimum-security prison.

Morris said Hankins was convicted of aggravated assault and theft by taking for an offense in Bartow County in November and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Other charges listed on his escape-information sheet include obstruction of law enforcement, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession of marijuana.