THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412290403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: POWHATAN LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
Seven youths walked away from a juvenile correctional center on Tuesday, the second such incident this month at a state youth detention facility.
Two of the youths who escaped from the Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center were immediately apprehended, according to officials from the Department of Youth and Family Services.
Using a police helicopter, plane and search dogs, state and local law enforcement agencies searched overnight for the other five, who range in age from 15 to 17.
State Police Lt. Len Terry said the youths ``just walked away.'' The escape occurred around 6:10 p.m. as the teens were walking between the dining hall and a housing unit of the campus-style youth center in northern Powhatan County.
No force was used, officials said.
The youths had committed offenses ranging from violations of a court order to armed robbery, officials said.
All five youths are white males and were wearing hooded sweat shirts, blue jackets and blue pants when they fled.
In a similar incident Dec. 3, three teenagers leaped off a roof to freedom from the Reception and Diagnostic Center in Chesterfield County. Two male staff members were escorting a group of about 40 youths from a dining hall to housing cottages.
Those three, who authorities said committed offenses ranging from grand larceny to possession of cocaine, were captured Dec. 5 in Newport News.
Escapes and other incidents at Beaumont this year prompted a study of the center and promises by state officials to improve security there.
In July at the crowded center, a staff member's leg was broken and his knee smashed when a juvenile offender picked him up and threw him down.
There have been several other escapes from the center in the past year and a half.
KEYWORDS: PRISON ESCAPE ESCAPED PRISONER JUVENILE by CNB