THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 6, 1994 TAG: 9412060338
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Virginia News
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Three teenagers who escaped from a juvenile correctional center in suburban Richmond were captured Monday in Newport News.
A patrol officer spotted the three about 6:15 p.m. and took them into custody, police Sgt. T. Zeitler said.
Newport News police had been alerted to the escape because one of the juveniles is from the city, he said.
State police spokeswoman Mary Evans said Newport News police were called by residents of an apartment complex who thought they had spotted the youths.
Officer Kenny Wiggins, who originally had arrested the local boy, responded to the call and recognized the escapees, Evans said. Two were arrested outside the complex; the third was arrested in his girlfriend's apartment.
The superintendent of the correctional center blamed the escape on overcrowding, a problem projected to escalate next year.
``There is an increasing threat of escape and an increasing threat of control problems within the facilities,'' said Robert Shepherd, a law professor and member of the Virginia Commission on Youth. ``The pressure is going to build up a great deal more.''
But Patricia West, director of the state Department of Youth and Family Services, disagreed. She said escapes have declined even as conditions became more crowded this year because security staffing has increased and perimeter fences have been constructed at some of the correctional centers.
The department plans to add space for 170 inmates along with fences with razor wire at two juvenile correctional centers next year, she said.
Serious overcrowding in juvenile correctional centers is anticipated because of the growth in the number of serious offenders and the length of sentences, Senate Finance staff member Steve Harms told committee members last week at a meeting in Blacksburg.
Space for 348 more juvenile offenders may be needed in the next 18 months, Harms said, which would be 39 percent more than the current daily population average of 900. The seven correctional centers were designed to hold 725 inmates.
The three youths, who committed offenses ranging from grand larceny to cocaine possession, climbed over a one-story wall Saturday afternoon at the Reception and Diagnostic Center.
A few hours later when it was dark, they apparently broke into a house, where they changed their clothes and stole a black powder pistol along with collector coins, Evans said. The three, ages 15, 16 and 17, also are suspected of stealing a white Jeep Cherokee a few miles away in Chesterfield County, she said.
Evans said police found the stolen Jeep when the three were arrested.
This was the first escape in eight years at the Reception and Diagnostic Center, where all juveniles go for educational and psychological tests before serving sentences at one of the seven juvenile correctional centers, officials said. Virginia also has 17 detention centers for juveniles before trial.
The youths, two of whom were from Martinsville, escaped as two male staff members escorted 40 boys from the dining hall to their housing cottages, center superintendent Don Driscoll said.
Security measures could be improved and the center was understaffed, Driscoll said. ``Ideally, the ratio is one staff member to 10. But we're overcrowded,'' he said. The center, which is designed for 90 youths, held 156 Saturday.
Overcrowding at the correctional centers is causing an increase in assaults on staff and on fellow inmates and in workers' compensation claims and vandalism, said Nancy Ross, director of the Virginia Commission on Youth.
``What happens is that the facilities become so focused on managing populations that the educational and therapeutical services are cut back,'' Ross said.
Youths rarely flee the correctional centers because they quickly form relationships with teachers, clinical psychologists and other staff members, she said.
West said escapes from juvenile correctional centers have declined. There were 30 escapes in 1990, 58 in 1992 and 18 in 1993. This year, there have been four escapes involving 12 youths, including the one Saturday, she said.
The 1994 General Assembly passed legislation allowing judges to sentence juveniles for up to seven years in correctional centers, beginning July 1. Before, judges could not impose a sentence of more than a year and usually let the youth department decide when to release juveniles.
The youth department projects that the average length of sentences imposed by judges will more than double under the new guideline - from 15 to 34 months. The number of juveniles in correctional centers is projected to triple in 10 years.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE ESCAPEES by CNB