A Friday incident that saw teenagers at a Kenai youth detention center riot, attack unarmed guards and escape was the result of a plot involving seven of the nine offenders being held at the facility, officials said Sunday.
"It was a planned escape," said Karen Forrest, the head of the state Division of Juvenile Justice. "It was not spontaneous. Essentially this is a case of youths planning an escape and assaulting juvenile justice officers and being able to leave the facility."
The trouble started while the teens were taking part in a planned Friday evening activity at the Kenai Peninsula Youth Facility, on Marathon Road in Kenai. Forrest said she believed they were playing "some kind of game" when the teenagers attacked the guards.
The two juvenile justice officers on duty were injured in the attack and received medical treatment, Forrest said. She declined to provide details of their injuries.
Five of the youthful offenders ended up escaping the facility. Three were quickly picked up by troopers in Kenai, but two managed to remain at large overnight before being arrested by police and troopers in Nikiski Saturday afternoon.
One of the escapees, an 18-year-old, was taken to the jail in Kenai where he will face charges as an adult.
The others will also face additional charges, Forrest said, which will remain confidential because they are under 18.
The incident has prompted the Division of Juvenile Justice, which is part of the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, to review security at the 10-bed facility, which was built in 2003 and is one of the newest in the state system.
About 150 youthful offenders, typically between the ages of 12-20, are housed at the state's eight juvenile detention centers, Forrest said.
Juvenile justice officers that work inside the facilities don't carry weapons, she said. In prisons housing adults, corrections officers typically carry pepper spray but not guns.
Forrest said the incident was serious but rare, and there are no plans to change policies on weapons that can be carried by juvenile justice officers.
"No, I don't see that," she said of the possibility. "Like I said, this is an extremely rare event. No, I think we need to look at our policies and our practices and see if there are changes that would make the facilities safer."
There have been other incidents where youth have escaped or assaulted guards, but nothing like the widespread, planned and coordinated attack that happened Friday night at the Kenai facility, Forrest said.