FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Fort Pierce police on Friday are searching for a 19-year-old escaped prisoner.
The Fort Pierce Police Department posted on social media that Justice Reynolds, 19, walked away from HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital at 9:15 p.m. Thursday.
A police department spokesperson said Reynolds was a prisoner of the Everglades Youth Academy in Okeechobee. It's unclear why he was in the hospital.
Police said Reynolds was last seen heading west near the 1700 block of South 23rd Street.
Fort Pierce Police searching for escaped prisoner, 19-year-old Justice J. Reynolds, who walked away from HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital on February 1, 2024 at about 9:15 p.m. Please call 911 immediately if you have information about Reynolds or his whereabouts. pic.twitter.com/K90FE6cP0W
— Fort Pierce Police Department (@FortPiercePD) February 2, 2024
Reynolds is 5-foot-8, 150 pounds, with brown hair, brown eyes and tattoos on both arms. He was last seen wearing black shorts with no shirt.
"Please call 911 immediately if you have information about Reynolds or his whereabouts," the Fort Pierce Police Department posted.
As of Friday afternoon, Fort Pierce police spokesman Larry Croom said all patrol officers were involved in a citywide search for Reynolds.
Croom did not answer additional questions about the inmate, referring those questions to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (FDJJ), which oversees the Everglades Youth Academy, a maximum security facility, according to the FDJJ website.
WPTV made multiple attempts to reach FDJJ officials over the phone and via email Friday.
Youth Opportunity Investments, LLC is a private company contracted by FDJJ to operate the Everglades Youth Academy and other juvenile facilities across Florida. A voicemail left at the company's Carmel, Indiana, headquarters was not returned.
The FDJJ's Bureau of Monitoring and Quality Improvement compiles annual compliance reports of each of its residential programs, where judges can send juvenile offenders to serve sentences. The most recent compliance report for the Everglades Youth Academy was completed in January 2023.
The report revealed multiple security concerns, including "an open major deficiency for youth supervision." Inspectors also noted that 24 of the facility's 113 cameras were not working, and that of the 26 job vacancies at the academy, 10 were for security personnel. Otherwise, the facility met the criteria for compliance in the vast majority of categories inspected.
Below is a statement from HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital:
"Due to patient privacy, we cannot discuss any individual patient. What we can tell you is typically patients who are in custody of law enforcement are accompanied by officers and in those circumstances we have protocols for admission and discharge of these types of patients. Additionally, we have 24/7 security at our hospital to help ensure the safety of our colleagues and patients."
