JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice is working to locate seven nonviolent youth offenders who escaped from Duval Academy on the Westside over the past several days.
On Friday, two youths absconded from the recreation field of the facility, a non-secure state treatment facility that houses males ages 14-18. DJJ was notified Monday morning about five other juveniles who fled from the facility in an unrelated incident.
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The two youths who escaped Friday have outstanding felony warrants, according to Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Melissa Bujeda.
DJJ is working with Youth Services International, which operates Duval Academy, to locate the youths.
"We will be working with law enforcement to ensure that those youth that absconded are quickly and safely taken into custody," Secretary Christina Daly said in a release. "DJJ residential services staff will be conducting interviews and thoroughly investigating these incidents to ensure they do not happen again."
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According to reports Action News obtained from JSO, a 14- and 17-year-old used a discarded Christmas tree as a ladder to climb a fence early Friday morning. Then, early Monday morning, JSO says another five juvenile inmates between the ages of 15 and 18 also escaped. The report says their rooms were being cleaned after a flood, and that they slipped out the kitchen door when no one was looking. They also climbed a fence to escape.
Denise Bailey lives directly across the street from Duval Academy and first noticed an increase in patrols on Friday afternoon, but was unaware of what was happening. She said she has never encountered any issues with the residents, who officials say are non-violent. However, she believes someone should have informed her family of the situation.
"Something caused them to go into that facility. Even if we're not in danger, I would think that they would actually come to me first to tell us what is going on, but nobody did contact me by any means," Bailey said.
The escaped teens are Landon Hood, Clay County; Anthony Bays, Duval County; Tristen Belanger, Santa Rosa County; James Mobbs, Bay County; D’Wann Watkins, Orange County; Logan Murphy, Walton County; Cole Drake, Orange County.
We attempted to contact to the family of one of the local offenders but no one has responded. We also tried to contact YSI's corporate office for comment but it hasn't yet responded either.
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