Nashville detention center employees charged in teenagers escape
Nashville TN December 16 2019 The last of four teenagers who escaped from a Tennessee juvenile detention facility late last month was captured Thursday afternoon, according to a tweet from Metro Nashville Police.
The teen was taken into custody at a Nashville apartment complex along with a man and woman who were in the apartment with him, police said.
Police found the 17-year-old with help from a tip to their Crime Stoppers hotline.
Authorities were offering a $12,500 reward for help capturing him. He faces an armed robbery charge.
A report by Youth Opportunity, the private contractor managing the detention center, found that a series of policy violations led to the teenagers’ Nov. 30 escape.
On Wednesday, former detention center supervisor Patrick Jones, 31, and former staff member Alexis Beech, 25, were charged with facilitating the escape by recklessness, Nashville police said in statements. Two other employees were fired for their roles in allowing the escape.
An investigation found that Jones allowed the four teens to perform cleaning duties after lockdown even though three weren’t eligible for work detail due to behavior issues, police said. In addition, Jones didn’t secure an elevator after using it and failed to notice that the teens were unsupervised when he passed them while responding to a call for assistance, police said.
Beech was assigned to monitor the teens that night, but left them alone without notifying anyone while she went to another location in the facility, police said.
It wasn’t immediately clear on Thursday whether Jones or Beech has an attorney.
