3 teenagers are caught after escape in Kailua

Police arrested three inmates yesterday morning not long after they escaped from the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility in Kailua.

About 9:35 a.m. the inmates, two age 15 and one age 16, were attending class on the mauka side of the youth correctional facility at 42-477 Kalanianaole Highway when they ran off and escaped by scaling a 10-foot barbed-wire fence.

A police helicopter and 22 officers searched for the teenagers, police said. Staff members of the youth correctional facility also assisted in the search.

At 10:05 a.m. police located two of the three teens in the area of Ulupii Street and Uluamahi Place in the Olomana subdivision, said Sgt. Michael Kuroda of the Kailua Police Station.

About an hour later, police captured the third inmate in a forest near the Luana Hills Golf Course. Kuroda said one of the three inmates twisted his ankle in the woods.

The three inmates were arrested on suspicion of second-degree escape.

Kuroda said they were first taken to the police station before they were sent back to the youth correctional facility.

Officials are conducting a comprehensive review of how the inmates escaped, said Derick Dahilig, spokesman of the state Department of Human Services.