10 boys arrested in ruckus, fighting at Arkansas juvenile treatment center

Ten residents of the Mansfield Juvenile Treatment Center were arrested after a "melee" Sunday night, said Capt. Philip Pevehouse, spokesman for the Sebastian County sheriff's office.

Pevehouse said the sheriff's office got a call from someone at the facility saying the kids were outside their "housing area," and the caller was worried they were going to escape.

"They had escaped their bungalows and were running around the grounds," is how dispatch relayed it to a deputy. Pevehouse said the youths were still within the fence that surrounds the facility.

"I don't know that anyone was hurt, but they were fighting and carrying on," he said. "But they had caused a melee, so they took 10 of them in."

Pevehouse said the arrested youths were at the Sebastian County Juvenile Detention Facility on Monday and will be charged with disorderly conduct.

According to a news release from the sheriff's office, the "unruly behavior" began in the boys area and spilled over to other parts of the camp.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services manages operations at the Mansfield center and five other youth lockups across the state through its Division of Youth Services.

Marci Manley, a spokesman for human services, said the incident Sunday occurred at about 7:45 p.m.

"According to staff, about a dozen youth at the facility left their dorm and were mingling in the common area outside and would not follow staff or law enforcement direction to return to their rooms," Manley wrote in an email.

She said there were 24 boys and 12 girls on the campus at the time.

The locks on the doors to the outside of the dorms aren't working, and a locksmith will be there today to begin repairing those locks, according to Manley's email.

"Staff have also encountered instances where youth are tampering with the locks to individual dorm rooms in the bungalows and causing them to not always function properly," she wrote. "The locksmith will replace or upgrade those locks."

There was no property damage from the incident and none of the youth left the campus, Manley wrote.

There was also an incident Saturday night at about 6 p.m. when three female detainees got into a confrontation, according to Manley. One girl was arrested for battery, Pevehouse said.

So far this year, deputies have responded to seven criminal reports at the Mansfield facility, which is about 30 miles south of Fort Smith. That follows nine criminal reports from the facility in all 12 months of 2018, according to the news release.

On Dec. 3, four teens escaped from the facility and were captured the next day. Two of them had broken into a Dollar General store in Mansfield and stole cigarettes and chips, according to the sheriff's office.

On Feb. 12, a boy escaped from the facility and was captured by a neighbor, who held him at gunpoint until the authorities arrived.

On March 17, a fight broke out among several youths at the facility, according to the sheriff's office. Caleb Davis of Huntington, a staff member at the facility, was arrested on a preliminary battery charge after reportedly kicking a 16-year-old male detainee who was handcuffed behind his back. The detainee was also arrested on a preliminary battery charge, according to the sheriff's office.

State Desk on 03/26/2019

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