Youth surrenders to Bryant police

A teenage boy who escaped an Alexander youth prison last week turned himself in to the Bryant Police Department, officials said.

Keaton McGee, 14, who escaped the juvenile detention center on Feb. 3 by going over the fence, turned himself in on Sunday, Sgt. Todd Crowson, a police spokesman, said.

"He came in with his mother without incident," Crowson said. "I don't have the details on why he turned himself in as of yet."

This wasn't the only time last week someone escaped from the Alexander facility.

Three teenage boys locked up at the youth prison escaped Wednesday night, injuring at least one guard in process, state officials said.

Police caught the boys around 12:45 a.m. Thursday at a Bryant Walmart, Amy Webb, a spokesman for the state Department of Human Services, previously said.

One teenager had asked to use the bathroom and was let out of his living quarters, Webb said. He then began unlocking rooms that belonged to at least five inmates.

The teens shoved and struck staff members as they fled their rooms, injuring one worker, who went to the hospital, she said.

Shortly after, the teens ran to the facility's perimeter, pulled up a section of fencing and low-crawled to get away, Webb said.

Alexander is the state's largest juvenile lockup, with 120 beds. It also serves as Arkansas' central intake unit, where almost all adjudicated youths are assessed before sentencing.

A Nevada company called Rite of Passage has managed the facility since 2016 through a $34.1 million, three-year contract.

State Desk on 02/11/2019

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