While the Sheriff’s Office inmate status on our public website shows the two juveniles as released yesterday, it does NOT mean they are no longer being detained. What is not stated on the website is the release was to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) who maintains a separate detention facility to that of the Lee County Jail and Core Compound site.
Juveniles taken into custody on criminal charges are brought to the Lee County Jail to be processed. While they are physically separate from adults, the process is much the same as the accused are fingerprinted, photographed and, then, processed by personnel assigned to the Juvenile Assessment Center. In this particular case, the two juveniles were released to DJJ and transported to their detention facility where they remain.