Police quell riot at Fla. juvenile detention center

Six law-enforcement agencies used dogs, helicopters and SWAT teams to quell a Saturday night riot at a privately run, all-male juvenile detention facility in central Florida, authorities said Sunday. The unrest caused major destruction, damaging 18 of the 20 buildings including one office containing the residents’ records set ablaze, all sparked by a fight over a basketball-game bet.

The rioting at the Avon Park Youth Academy ended after three hours with seven teenage residents suffering minor injuries and taken to Florida Hospital in the nearby town of Sebring. Police said the rioting caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the facility.

Injuries included cuts, bruises, concussions and one broken leg, the Sheriff’s office said. None of the young residents managed to escape and no staff were hurt, police said.

According to PCSO spokesperson Carrie Eleazer, authorities were not responsible for the teenagers' injuries. 

"We instructed the juveniles to surrender and they did. No protective action was used. Their injuries were caused by fighting with each other and by breaking glass, throwing objects, etc. during the rioting," Eleazer told Al Jazeera. 

All told, 150 law-enforcement officers came to quash the mayhem, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) said. There were 138 residents at the time, overseen by 21 staff, according to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice.

The department added photos of the aftermath of the riots to its Facebook page.

Some of teenagers allegedly involved can expect to face “multiple felonies,” the PCSO said.

The PCSO said the riot started around 8:30 p.m. Saturday after a bet on a basketball game between boys from St. Petersburg and Orlando went sour.

"A fight broke out at the facility between two groups of juvenile delinquents just after a basketball game. A group of five juveniles from St. Pete were playing basketball against a group of five juveniles from Orlando," the PCSO said.

"The wager for the game was three Cup O' Noodles soups – the losing team agreed to give the winning team this food. The losing team, the juveniles from St. Pete, refused to pay, and a fight broke out between the two groups. Other juveniles who were not playing basketball joined the affray, and a riot broke out."

Rioters also stole golf carts, a staff radio and set a dumpster on fire during the unrest, authorities said.

"They weren't trying to escape. They were inside the compound. Some of them were riding around on golf carts and bicycles," Highland County Lt. Curtis Ludden told Highlands Today.

Police managed to stop the riot around 12:00 a.m. Sunday.

Putting the rioting down involved multiple law enforcement agencies including the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the Avon Park Police Department, the Department of Corrections, the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Corrections, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Polk County firefighters also responded to put out the blazes police say residents started.

Avon Park Youth Academy houses juvenile offenders ages 16 to 18, a Florida State University evaluation said. The teenagers there don’t have homes or schools to go back to.

“In order for students to be placed in Avon Park, they must be assessed as being unlikely to return home or to public school upon release, and must not have any significant mental health or substance abuse problems,” the study said.

A 12-foot-high barbed-wire fence surrounds the academy. Teenage residents spend an average of 270 days there, receiving vocational training and other rehabilitative services.

Private security company G4S, which operates Avon Park, said on its website that it aims at "delivering higher quality services at a lower cost than government agencies can self-deliver."