Employees charged after Tennessee juvenile detention escape

NASHVILLE – Two former employees at a Tennessee juvenile detention centre where four teenagers escaped last month were charged Wednesday with facilitating the escape, police said.

Former detention centre supervisor Patrick Jones, 31, and former staff member Alexis Beech, 25, are both accused of facilitating the Nov. 30 escape by recklessness, Nashville police said in statements.

Three of the four teens have been recaptured, including two who were accused of murder. One remains on the loose. Authorities have offered a $12,500 reward for the capture of the 17-year-old, who was incarcerated on an armed robbery charge.

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 behaviour 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.

A report by Youth Opportunity, the company that manages the facility, outlined a series of policy violations that led to the escape. After the teens were left unsupervised, they got onto an elevator, then tricked the operator into sending them to an unsecured floor and staff did not immediately call 911, according to the report.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Jones or Beech has an attorney.