Officials with the Arkansas Youth Services Division now believe a 17-year-old boy is no longer within the 108-acre campus of the state's largest youth lockup, an agency spokesman said Tuesday.
The boy, Brandon Price, was last seen about 8 p.m. Saturday near the lockup's laundry area after he ran out the doorway of the recreation room at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center near Alexander.
On Monday, division officials said they believed Price was hiding somewhere on the treatment center's campus, which comprises several buildings and wooded areas enclosed by a razor-wire-topped fence.
But Tuesday, Amy Webb, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, said that additional searches of the grounds had yielded no sign of Price despite mowing down tall grass, combing through the buildings and reviewing surveillance footage.
"We're left to believe that he was able to get out somehow," Webb said.
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said that special agents from the agency's criminal investigations division are involved in trying to locate Price, who is from Washington County.
"[The police agency ] is taking a more active role now that DHS and the contractor believe he is certainly off the property, and we're certainly sharing more information with local law enforcement in the areas that he would call home or is known to have friends and family," said Sadler, noting that anyone who sees Price should call the authorities.
Price is described as white, 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing 110 pounds. He has brown hair and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and khaki pants.
Youth Services Division officials said Price doesn't have a history of violence, and Sadler said, "Our people have not been told of any threat that this juvenile has made toward law enforcement or the public."
The Youth Services Division said Monday that Price had been committed for only misdemeanor offenses, but Webb said that information was incorrect. In addition to the misdemeanors, Price was committed for a nonviolent felony, she said.
Price has been at the Alexander lockup, which is supposed to handle the most violent and behaviorally troubled youth, for about two months.
Both the Youth Services Division and contractor G4S Youth Services, which is paid about $10 million a year to operate the Alexander lockup, are conducting internal investigations into how Price was able to run away. The company also has placed one employee on leave as a result of the escape.
At the time Price ran away, the 100-bed facility was holding 104 children. Webb has said the Youth Services Division will examine whether the lockup was properly staffed Saturday.
Price slipped out of the recreation room while two G4S employees were supervising a group of about dozen youths. One youth ran out with Price, then turned back. But Price kept going.
A surveillance camera recorded him near the laundry area later that evening, but no one has seen any sign of him since.
Metro on 06/17/2015