A Fall River man walked out of a federal halfway house in Boston and vanished into the streets — not to reappear until months later in Atlantic City. Jason Barreto, 30, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to one year and one day in prison for that breach of custody, closing a chapter on his unauthorized disappearance from the Coolidge House Residential Reentry Center.
On September 17, 2015, Barreto left the facility without permission following an undisclosed incident and never returned. He was supposed to serve the remainder of a 70-month sentence for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone — a conviction handed down in 2011 in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island. At the time of his escape, he was just weeks from his scheduled release date of November 1, 2015, but his choices pushed him back behind bars.
Barreto had been transferred on May 21, 2015, from the U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy in Kentucky to the Boston reentry center as part of the Bureau of Prisons’ transition program. Instead of completing his sentence under supervision, he vanished. Authorities tracked him for months until the U.S. Marshal Service, acting on a credible tip, arrested him on April 8, 2016, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
In August 2016, Barreto pleaded guilty to one count of escape from federal custody. At today’s hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns handed down the one-year and one-day sentence — a term that, while seemingly minimal, carries federal eligibility for good conduct credit and ensures Barreto will serve time in a secured facility, not another reentry program.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Soivilien of the Major Crimes Unit. Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb and U.S. Marshal John Gibbons of the District of Massachusetts confirmed the sentencing, emphasizing that fugitives from federal custody will be hunted down regardless of time or distance.
Barreto’s original drug conviction was tied to a broader network trafficking oxycodone across state lines. His escape didn’t earn him freedom — just more time, another record, and a reminder: the feds don’t forget, and they don’t forgive.
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Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Organized Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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