Juvenile’s escape raises concerns about state’s detention centers; not teen’s first jailbreak
By Josh Chapin
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BUTNER, North Carolina (WTVD) — On Tuesday, ABC11 went to the northeast Wake County neighborhood where Zane Cesnik’s family lives.
It’s a place nearly 45 minutes from where the 17-year-old escaped custody in Butner on Monday.
But Cesnik never made it all the way home and was taken back into custody hours after he slipped away.
The incident cast doubts on the security and procedures of the state’s detention centers.
ABC11 learned that Cesnik previously broke out of a facility in Richmond County.
“Crimes are being committed, they are escaping from these facilities and causing havoc at some of these facilities,” said Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden.
McFadden, whose county includes Charlotte and is the state’s second-most populated one in the state behind only Wake County, is on the board of the American Correctional Association.
“I think we need to have a conversation on how we’re transporting these individuals and how we can better secure them,” he said.
ABC11 went to him to ask for solutions hours after reporters questioned officials with Granville County and others as to how the escape happened Monday.
“I can tell you he was doing a (recreation) period, but I can’t tell you how at this point,” NCDPS Deputy Secretary William L. Lassiter said of Cesnik’s escape.
Investigators said they do not believe he had help.
“If you are inside a facility, it should be some mechanism that a person cannot just walk out of a door,” McFadden said.
McFadden said he wants to take the burden from other older facilities across the state. He said he has a 500-bed facility in his county that was converted into a juvenile detention center that is not being used.
“It is a facility that can secure these individuals until they arrive to court,” he said.
Documents obtained by ABC11 show the warrant for Cesnik’s arrest on Monday after he broke out of jail. Another shows a petition he and his attorneys filed to try to move his murder case back from superior to juvenile court.
That appeal was denied.
McFadden was adamant that he wanted to be part of the answer.
“Rehabilitation. We want these juveniles to be better but if we’re simply housing them in these facilities and waiting for court dates, we are not doing the job that we are sworn to be, sworn as law enforcement officers,” he said.
ABC11 reached out to the family of Jerry Hicks, the 71-year-old murder victim, but they said they were too emotional to comment.
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