New Jersey Opens Review After 3 Teens Escape From Detention Facility
RINGWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- State officials have launched a review as the search continues for three teenage boys who escaped from a detention center in Passaic County over the weekend.
The boys -- a 15-year-old and two 17-year-olds -- are believed to be in the Newark area after they fled from the minimum-security Green Residential Community Home in Ringwood on Sunday. The three were being held there on probation violations.
State Opens Review After 3 Teens Escape From Detention Facility
The teens attacked a 71-year-old employee in the laundry room and stole his keys, authorities said. They then drove off in his Toyota Sienna van, unaware that the employee's friend, a 29-year-old woman, was sleeping in the backseat.
Police were able to track the teens' movements using the woman's cellphone, police Chief Joseph Walker said.
The employee and the woman were not injured. The woman and the van were found in Newark early Monday.
The detention center houses nonviolent offenders, but the 15-year-old was being held on charges of robbery and resisting arrest, Walker told WCBS 880's Levon Putney.
"And he shouldn't have been placed in there," Walker said. "He slipped through the cracks."
Walker said state officials are closing the cracks by having the facility review teens' files before they arrive and letting police know if a more at-risk kid is on the way.
He added that when the teens are caught they will not be allowed back at the Green Residential Community Home and will instead be sent to a "more controlled facility."
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