Wiles was picked up by Traffic and Highway Patrol officers on Five Islands Road in Unanderra just after 5pm on Thursday, about 160 kilometres from the Goulburn Correctional Complex.

The officers stopped a blue Holden Barina and identified a back seat passenger as the 25-year-old escapee, police said.

"It was just a standard highway stop and the police recognised him in the back seat," said Lake Illawarra police duty officer Acting Inspector Matt Glasgow.

"He wasn't driving, he was in the back."

On Thursday night, Wiles was charged with escaping lawful custody, and was refused police bail to appear in Port Kembla Local Court on Friday.

Two women, aged 32 and 43, were also in the car and were arrested, although the 43-year-old woman was later released without charge.

The 32-year-old woman was charged late on Thursday with aiding an inmate to escape from lawful custody. She was refused police bail to appear at Port Kembla Local Court on Friday.

About 11.30pm on Thursday, a 39-year-old man was arrested at a home on Gibsons Road at Figtree and was also charged with aiding an inmate to escape from lawful custody. He was granted bail to appear at Port Kembla Local Court on October 28.

Acting Inspector Glasgow was unable to confirm the relationship between Wiles and the two women in the car.

Wiles escaped from the minimum security section of Goulburn jail by making a break from a work area at about 10am on Wednesday, NSW Minister for Corrections David Elliott confirmed.

The inmate had organised for a black Holden Commodore to be waiting on the outside when he made his bold dash for freedom, the authorities revealed.

He had posed in his prison cell in his underpants in photographs posted on Facebook just two days before his escape.

Mr Elliott told 2GB radio that Wiles was serving 18 months for shoplifting and driving while disqualified..

"It was a black Commodore that picked him up. That's part of the investigation now," he said.

Police were also investigating whether Wiles had used a mobile phone to get in contact with the driver.

Nine News reported a close family member said Wiles was planning to turn himself in on Thursday night after "one day of freedom".

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A NSW Police spokeswoman said she could not confirm a report that Wiles had a phone in his prison cell for at least three weeks before his escape.

Mr Elliott said full body scanners were being installed in Goulburn Correctional Centre on Thursday to prevent phones from being taken into the prison.

"I don't know what I'm more disgusted in. The way that he was able to escape, or just the fact that he is so stupid that he has thrown his life away," Mr Elliott said.

He said that, when Wiles was recaptured, he was now facing another two years in prison for escaping custody, and a further two years for having contraband - a mobile phone - in prison.

Mr Elliott has said the government would work towards having phone jamming technology at all jails across the state.

"It's something we will be working towards," Mr Elliott said.

"Last year we were able to acquire 325 mobile phones, obviously we can't get every one of them which is why today I've brought forward the new technology which will see mobile phone scanning on persons going into jails."

"What's happened in the past 24 hours is unacceptable…we need to make sure this doesn't happen."

Before his escape, Wiles was due to be released in July next year.

Ali Chahine still on the run

Mr Elliott also confirmed that a second detainee who escaped on Wednesday, this time during a court appearance at the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney, had been handcuffed shortly before his escape.

However, the District Court judge ordered that the handcuffs be removed from the prisoner, Ali Chahine, 33, Mr Elliott said.

It is understood an offender is only restrained if regarded as "high risk" and the judiciary relies on intelligence from other agencies to make that determination.

Any risk Mr Chahine might have posed wasn't communicated to Judge Andrew Scotting by Corrective Services, a NSW District Court spokeswoman said.

Mr Chahine was appearing in the District Court for breaching his bail on drug supply charges.

He had been granted bail in August so he could enter a drug rehabilitation program, a judgement handed down moments before his escape stated.

But he was asked to leave a month later and in turn breached his bail conditions.

On September 22, he was assaulted, thrown from a moving car and hospitalised.

He was hauled back before court on Wednesday to show why he shouldn't be detained.

According to a judgement, Chahine argued for his need for medical treatment for his injuries and indicated he still wanted to pursue rehabilitation.

However, Judge Scotting said after Chahine left rehabilitation last month he didn't try to regularise his bail conditions.

When Chahine was denied bail on Wednesday afternoon, he allegedly assaulted two Corrective Services guards before jumping out of the dock and running from the room without any shoes on.

He then escaped through a fire exit on to Castlereagh Street and jumped on a bus, from which he disembarked a short distance away near Central station. He also remains on the run.

"On that particular occasion, the [judge] asked for the prisoner not to be handcuffed and not to be put in the dock," Mr Elliott said.

"My advice at the moment is that the corrections officers who I'm responsible for did everything right."

However, spokespeople from NSW Justice and the District Court confirmed the Mr Chahine was in the dock before he escaped.

with the Illawarra Mercury