Unrelated: Herald report exposes horrors at Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
A recent Miami Herald Investigation, titled “Fight Club” exposes the horrors taking place in Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice. From beatings instigated by corrections officers for their enjoyment, to sexual assaults, what has been allowed to take place in the Juvenile Justice system is so shocking that some of the reports are traumatic to read. You can only imagine the effect the brutal treatment had on the Juveniles.
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The Department of Juvenile Justice calls its philosophy “tough love.”
But a Miami Herald I-Team analysis of 10 years of seldom-seen records reveals an emphasis on the “tough.”
Documents, interviews and surveillance videos show a disturbing pattern of beatings doled out or ordered by underpaid officers, hundreds of them prison system rejects. Youthful enforcers are rewarded with sweet pastries from the employee vending machines, a phenomenon known as “honey-bunning.” The Herald found fights staged for entertainment, wagering and to exert control, sex between staff and youthful detainees and a culture of see-nothing/say-nothing denial.
Herald journalists also examined 12 questionable deaths of detained youths since 2000.
In the end, untold numbers of already troubled youths have been further traumatized.
With a one-year recidivism rate of 45 percent, it is a justice system that is supposed to reform juvenile delinquents, but too often turns them into hardened felons.
Florida law enforcement sexually abusing kids…what a shocker!
I am sure these are the same officers who volunteer to pose as 13 year olds in chatroom stings as well. Seems that they really like their jobs.
No remind me again about how the registry keeps kids safe…
I have a good friend who at one time was a corrections official with the sheriff’s department. After five years he said he could take it no more. Many of the CO’s needed to be behind bars more that the men they supervised. It’s high time that people be evaluated as individuals and not put into ‘one size fits all’ categories. There are RSO’s…ex-offenders…I would much rather associate with than some of these SOB’s who do their dirt while hiding behind a badge.
No matter how many articles are done about this or news specials done or what have you, nothing, and I mean NOTHING is going to change in Florida’s prison/DJJ system. One of the articles mentioned that a British group runs a DJJ center and makes $800,000 profit a year!!! Do you think the FL legislature and court system is going to let that cash cow (that they all benefit from) get exposed and shut it down??? Nothing is going to change. This will continue until people snap out of their self-centered bubble of a life and cry bloody mary about this stuff. Including our perils as RSOs. But we can sit here and talk about all we want. Mark my words….IT……WILL…..NEVER…….CHANGE!!!
Florida school System Beat me with a Split Baseball bat.