Local News: Riot Last Night at the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center

NewChannel 5 Reports that Two dozen teens were taken back into custody overnight after an hours long riot where guards were attacked at the Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in the Bordeaux area. It's the same facility where 32 teens escaped earlier this week, making national headlines.

Teams from the Tennessee Department of Correction and the Tennessee Highway Patrol entered the facility on Stewarts Lane early Thursday, wearing riot gear. They handcuffed the 24 youth involved, and then led them to the perimeter fence. No teens were able to make it outside the perimeter.

Metropolitan Nashville Police cruisers were lined outside the perimeter to prevent escapes.

Ten of the reported ringleaders were then taken to a juvenile detention center in Rutherford County, while the remaining 14 were taken back inside Woodland Hills. Officials said there were extra guards on duty Thursday morning.

Department of Children's Services Commissioner Jim Henry pledged Thursday morning to continue quickly working to reinforce aluminum panels beneath exterior windows at the dorms, which the teens kicked out in both incidents on Monday and Wednesday nights.

Henry also added the department will explore ways to renegotiate long-standing policies that restrict their ability to lock the doors of teens held at the state's three youth development centers. The policies allow the teens to open their doors to enter common areas, which officials said makes it hard for staff to control them in these types of circumstances.

DCS said they were also making plans to strengthen the perimeter fence, which was breached Monday night.

The incident began just after 11 p.m. Wednesday when five or six teens were reported on the roof of building 3, attempting to escape.

There were reports of the boys armed with “metal and rocks." NewsChannel 5 reporter Todd Walker said teens could be seen on the ground with baseball bats and metal pipes.

At 2:30 a.m., DCS reported there were up to 20 teens outside the dorms. NewsChannel 5 crews caught the teens running through the yard, as well as one even attacking a guard.

Tennessee Department of Children's Services spokesman Rob Johnson said two staff members at the detention center suffered minor injuries.

Woodland Hills has been understaffed, according to officials, because they cannot find enough qualified candidates. Fifteen guards were on duty Wednesday night, but they are not allowed to carry weapons, and can only attempt to talk teens down in circumstances such as this.

Officials said extra staff had been on duty, as some of the teens who escaped earlier in the week had just returned from Davidson County Juvenile Court where they had faced charges from Monday's escape.

Six teens remain at large from Monday's escape.