UPDATED, JULY 8, 11:32 A.M.: Both teenage boys who ran away from the Joplin Youth Facility Tuesday night are now back in custody.
Officials picked up the teens, who were fugitives for a little more than two days, sometime after 11 p.m. Thursday, says Robert Rangel, a spokesman for the Orange County Probation Department.
The probation department picked up one of the teens and the Santa Ana Police Department the other, Rangel says. He didn't have any details yet on where they were picked up or whether someone had called law enforcement officials to turn them in.
He says the teens each now face additional detention time, which usually ranges from 30 days to six months for an escape.
Original post about the escape after the jump…
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Upon word of the escape Tuesday, the sheriff's department conducted a search for about an hour, Rangel says, and then turned the search back over to the probation department.
What's the next step for Rangel's department? “Phone calls, door knocks and surveillance,” he says, adding that most of the time the kids' parents wait until their little fugitives are asleep or in the shower and call to turn them in.
“We remind parents, 'Hey, if they come home, call us. Don't get caught up in harboring them,'” Rangel says.
The facility houses 13- to 16-year-olds for an average of 35 days and often for probation violations, Rangel says. The facility doesn't take kids with arson, sex offenses or high-degree violence on their records, however.
Based on his past experience with similar escapes, Rangel says he thinks the boys will face a minimum of an additional 30 days and a maximum of an extra six months for escaping.
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