Employees fired after Tennessee juvenile detention escape

NASHVILLE – Four employees at a Tennessee juvenile detention centre where four teenagers escaped on Nov. 30 are being fired, according to Nashville’s juvenile court administrator.

The court is conducting “an exhaustive review” of both the escape and its contract with Youth Opportunity, the company that manages the facility, administrator Kathryn Sinback said on Tuesday.

An earlier report by the private contractor outlined a series of policy violations that led to the escape. Employees allowed the youths out of their cells after bedtime and then left them unsupervised. Once they were left alone, the teens got onto an elevator that was improperly left open, then tricked the operator into sending them to an unsecured floor. Finally, staff did not immediately call 911, according to the report.

One of the teenagers was still at large as of Tuesday while the other three had been recaptured.

All four of the employees were previously suspended. Sinback said she did not know the effective date of the their terminations.