9 juveniles taken into custody after ‘riot’ at youth psychiatric facility
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Nine juveniles were taken into police custody after what IMPD called a riot at a near southeast side youth psychiatric facility, according to a police report.
Just before 11 p.m. Wednesday, 11 officers with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department were dispatched to the 1400 block of South State Avenue, the location of Resource Treatment Center and Options Transitional Living, on a report of a riot, the report says.
Four staff members were assaulted and the facility sustained more than $50,000 in damage, according to the report.
The four female and five male juveniles listed as taken into custody in the report range in age from 13 to 17.
I-Team 8’s Stephanie Zepelin has investigated the Resource facility, reporting as recently as last month.
Last November, she spoke to neighbors who said kids were escaping from the center. Police records confirmed that juveniles were escaping. Neighbors said the kids were breaking into a nearby vacant house to use it as a place to hang out.
In February, Zepelin spoke to former employees, as well as former residents of the facility who said staff were violent with minors staying there in the past, and that some staff members encouraged the juveniles to fight.
