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A teenager was arrested in Washington, D.C., on Monday after escaping from the new juvenile detention center in Laurel over the weekend.

Reggie Sanders, a spokesman for the District's Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, said a youth fled the New Beginnings Youth Center on Saturday evening — a day after the center opened. On Monday the teenager was apprehended in the District.

Sanders said the Metropolitan Police Department took him into custody, and added that DYRS is continuing the investigation into how the teenager escaped.

The $46 million center is run by the DYRS and houses 60 juvenile offenders from the District between the ages of 14 and 21. It is located in Anne Arundel County on an 800-acre campus between Route 198 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, just east of Russett, a planned community with 3,200 homes.

It replaces the nearby Oak Hill detention center, which Sanders said closed on May 28. Oak Hill was known for charges of inmate abuse and poor living conditions that saw numerous escapes, and residents and politicians calling for its closure.

In 2001, two breakouts at Oak Hill saw 10 residents escape. Three escaped in 2006. Karl Grimes, an Oak Hill resident, died in November 2005 after being injured during a fight.

Although this is the first escape, it's not the first problem in the new center's short history. John Walker, a union representative for the center's employees, said heavy rains caused immense flooding just days before its opening.