THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 11, 1996 TAG: 9610110533
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: 30 lines
Two teen-age boys escaped from the state's boot camp for young offenders Thursday but were recaptured eight hours later in woods near the camp.
A third boy tried to escape with the pair about 3:30 a.m. and was grabbed off the fence surrounding the Virginia Juvenile Boot Camp, known as Camp Washington.
Staff of Youth Services International Inc., a private company that runs the camp for the state, apprehended the two escapees about 11:30 a.m. with help from local and state police.
All three will be transferred to a juvenile prison, the Department of Juvenile Justice said. The names were not released.
The department said both escapees were 17. One was from Portsmouth and the other from Suffolk. The teen-ager caught on the fence is a 16-year-old from Fairfax County.
The camp houses boys and girls convicted of nonviolent offenses, such as truancy, vandalism, delinquency and drug abuse. They undergo more than five hours a day of classroom instruction and rigorous physical training and discipline.
The camp has 49 boys. Eight girls are housed separately.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE OFFENDER ESCAPED PRISONER by CNB