By Elyse Carmosino
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — Three teens were hospitalized after a fight at Baton Rouge’s juvenile detention center, the mayor’s office said, resulting in damage to the antiquated facility.
The inmates were taken for treatment after they were involved in a “youth-to-youth” brawl shortly before 10:30 p.m. Friday, according to East Baton Rouge City-Parish spokesman Mark Armstrong.
He declined to provide details or elaborate on what caused the melee, but said that the mayor’s office classified the incident as “non-critical,” meaning no one escaped and there were no serious injuries — among staff or otherwise.
Armstrong said the juveniles were transported to a hospital as a precautionary measure and were returned to the detention facility a few hours later. They will face new counts for the altercation, which are being filed through the Baton Rouge Police Department.
The incident was “not unusual for any type of detention center,” Armstrong said.
Baton Rouge’s 70-year-old juvenile detention center has faced heavy scrutiny in recent years after a number of high-profile incidents — including multiple escapes — led East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore III last month to call on the parish to replace the facility, which he described as “outdated and potentially dangerous.”
In July, two juveniles broke out of the center and were on the run for nearly two days before being caught. Three months later, in October, the facility was breached again when five teenagers overpowered an officer guarding a dormitory and stole his keys, attacking two more guards and causing one to be hospitalized before making their escape.
This past February, three boys leveled “verbal threats” at staff members and ripped out ceiling tiles during a two-hour-long brawl.
In responses to last month’s incident and the 2021 escapes, Armstrong said the facility is “required to meet the state standards,” however, Moore told the Advocate that the incidents highlight how outdated jail facilities can create scenarios that put both inmates and staff at risk.
“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.”
___
(c)2022 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.