In the News
ICYMI: Where Was the Governor, Dark Secrets of Florida Juvenile Justice
From Johanna Cervone, Florida Democratic Party spokesperson: “Yesterday, we learned that Governor Scott and his appointments were complicit in the inhumane treatment and barbaric deaths of young people in the State’s care. Despite hundreds of complaints, supporting evidence and years of media reports, Governor Scott and the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice refused to make the changes necessary to put an end to what seems to be widespread, institutionally sanctioned violence towards children in the State’s care,” said Johanna Cervone of the Florida Democratic Party. “Too many of Florida’s juvenile offenders are housed in for-profit detention centers that heavily fund Rick Scott’s campaigns, and while we are sickened, we are not surprised that once again Rick Scott is putting his own self-serving interests above all others – and people are suffering.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
By Carol Marbin Miller And Audra D.S. Burch
October 10, 2017
Key Points:
- “Elord Revolte’s death evokes many of the dark secrets of Florida’s troubled juvenile justice system, including incompetent supervision, questionable healthcare, willfully blind internal investigations and spasms of staff-induced violence, sometimes bought for the price of a pastry.”
- “DJJ records are peppered with allegations of staff engaging in sex with detainees. One counselor at a Fort Lauderdale program — she was known as “the cradle robber,” a public defender wrote — bore the child of a recent detainee. Six months later, the program gave her a glowing recommendation for a job working with kids.”
- “Tolerance for cover-ups: Over the past 10 years, DJJ has investigated 1,455 allegations of youth officers or other staffers failing to report abusive treatment of detainees — or, if they did report an incident, lying about the circumstances. That’s nearly three times a week.”
- “Mark Steward, who was director of the Missouri Division of Youth Services for more than 17 years and is credited with turning it into a national model, said: ‘Everybody should feel shame for letting this happen. Everybody. Legislators, the governor, the people running these programs.'”
Read the full article here.
See also: Miami New Times: After Herald Catches Prison Guards Running Child “Fight Clubs,” State Attacks Reporters