Three boys threatened staff members and ripped out ceiling tiles during a two-hour ruckus at the Baton Rouge Juvenile Detention Center, prompting another call from the district attorney to replace an "outdated and potentially dangerous" facility that saw two high-profile escapes last year.
While no one was injured in the Wednesday night fracas, District Attorney Hillar Moore III said Thursday that maybe it would prompt action. He suggested the jail be torn down and rebuilt to modern standards.
“Everyone in the government and our city really needs to be aware that this is a concern we need to address,” Moore said. “It has to be addressed now. Hopefully this incident, which didn’t turn out as bad as it could have been, will be the catalyst to get that done.”
Last year, two escapes saw a total of seven youths leave the facility on Veterans Memorial Boulevard near Metro Airport. The escapees included Xavier Cade, who is accused of shooting and killing a woman on her carport off Antioch Road just before Christmas 2019. Cade recently turned 17 and a judge ruled last month that he can be transferred to an adult facility.
The city-parish serves as the administrator of the detention center, and East Baton Rouge City-Parish spokesman Mark Armstrong said the facility is “required to meet the state standards.” He made similar comments when calls for a new center were made after last year's escapes.
The detention center turns 70 this year. The latest incident inside the sprawling facility started around 6 p.m. Wednesday evening and lasted until about 8 p.m., authorities said.
An entrance to Juvenile Justice Center at 8333 Veterans Memorial Blvd in Baton Rouge, LA. Five people held at this center for "some very serious offenses" escaped after attacking two guards who had been watching them. One of the youths remained at large Friday Oct 15, 2021
Three boys in custody became boisterous and started pulling tiles out of ceilings, disobeying commands and then leveling "verbal threats" at staff, said Baton Rouge Police Department Spokesman Sgt. L'Jean McKneely.
Staff called BRPD to file a report and the department’s SWAT team was placed on standby. SWAT officers did not end up going to the facility, McKneely said.
In October, five teenagers, including Cade, escaped from the jail after overpowering guards while bearing a shank and stealing one of the officer's cars. Four of the boys were quickly apprehended but one of them, Malik Williams, then 18, was on the run for more than two weeks before authorities caught him in Texas with his girlfriend.
In July, two youth broke out of the center and were on the run for 1½ days before being recaptured.
The center has long been considered outdated but voters have rejected plans to upgrade it. Before 2021, no inmate had escaped the facility since 2016.
While Moore acknowledged the outcome of Wednesday’s incident could have been worse, he said the ripped-out ceiling tiles show how outdated jail facilities can create scenarios that risk harming inmates and jail staff.
“If you’re able to get to a tile, that’s troubling. If you’re able to pull a pipe out of the ceiling, that’s troubling,” he said. “I think (with) any kind of prison or detention center, you want to make sure security is the number one concern. You want to make sure no one can arm themselves to hurt others or hurt themselves.”
An entrance to Juvenile Justice Center at 8333 Veterans Memorial Blvd in Baton Rouge, LA. Five people held at this center for "some very serious offenses" escaped after attacking two guards who had been watching them. One of the youths remained at large Friday Oct 15, 2021
Armstrong emphasized that no one was hurt and no one escaped the facility Wednesday.
McKneely said the three boys who became unruly will face new criminal counts stemming from the incident: simple criminal damage to property, participation in a riot and simple assault.
The police spokesman said the simple assault counts stem from threats made to detention center staff, including claims that the youths would "beat their ass."
Armstrong in an October 2021 interview blamed that year’s escapes on a recently passed state law that raised the age of juvenile jurisdiction for offenders to include 17-year-olds, who previously entered the adult criminal justice system after an arrest.
According to documents on the detention center’s website, the facility in an average day housed 27 detained youth in 2018.
The current figure “changes daily,” said Armstrong, and stood at 27 Thursday evening.
While the number of inmates hasn't changed greatly, the type of inmate perhaps has: Moore thinks the detention center's recent problems are due to alleged offenders who carry more serious charges being housed there since the 2016 Raise the Age law took effect.
"It is my belief we have more violent juvenile offenders housed at the detention center," he said, "and more violent juvenile offenders who we have chosen to indict as adults now being housed at a facility that is outdated."