PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — The acting director of the West Virginia Division of Juvenile Services confirms a leadership change has been made and refresher training for correctional officers is underway at the Lorrie Yeager Jr. Juvenile Center in Wood County following a riot last month.
“Our residents did gain control of a living unit and did some mass destruction to that living unit,” said Stephanie Bond of the Feb. 18 incident in Parkersburg that involved six of the 20 residents of the facility.
“These residents banded together and started demonstrating some out of control behavior.”
She said the facility’s juvenile correctional officers were working to separate the six from the rest of the population.
“While they were dealing with the other 14 residents, those six that were causing the disturbance ended up breaking a foosball table and some other things in order to obtain some weapons,” said Bond. It took a couple of hours for officers to regain control.
Authorities have said there was never any threat to the public, though the damage to the building’s commons area was described as “extensive.” Six officers from the Parkersburg Police Department were called in to assist with the situation.
Since then, State Police troopers have been investigating along with the Wood County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Bond talked about the response to the riot on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”