PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
At a YSI facility in St. Augustine
in 2009, more than 25 separate
children accused staff and management at the facility of preventing
them from calling the state’s abuse
hotline, according to an internal investigation by the DJJ. All the cases
were found to be inconclusive.
Even in state-run facilities, outside authorities found that cases
of abuse went undocumented.
The U.S. Justice Department’s
civil rights division noted many
concerns about state oversight
in an investigation of a violenceridden state juvenile prison in
north Florida two years ago. Federal investigators concluded that
problems inside the institution
indicated a “failed system of oversight and accountability” across
Florida’s youth prisons.
The state closed the facility
before the Justice Department
finished its report, citing a lack
of funds. In a follow-up letter to the DOJ in January 2012,
Gov. Rick Scott challenged the
“unsupported suggestion” that
problems in Florida’s juvenile
justice programs were systemic.
“Nonetheless, my administration
remains committed to review
and reform,” he wrote.
Former Department of Juvenile
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
Justice officials say that because
Florida has turned over its youth
prison system to contractors like
YSI, the state is effectively complicit in allowing problems to
fester at private facilities. With a
fully outsourced system, there is
little incentive to crack down on
contractors, former staffers say.
“They don’t want the providers
to look bad, because they don’t
have anyone else to provide this
service,” said a former Department of Juvenile Justice executive
staffer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity for fear of jeopardizing a continued career in the field.
“Bottom line, the state of Florida
doesn’t want responsibility for
these kids.”
TROUBLED PAST
Such pronouncements have dogged
authorities in Florida for decades.
In the early 1980s, lawyers
with the American Civil Liberties Union began investigating
reports of horrendous conditions
and mistreatment inside Florida’s
three “training schools” for juvenile delinquents. One institution on the Florida panhandle, the
Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys
— then among the largest youth
jails in the country — had gained
a reputation for extraordinary
brutality and neglect. In 1983, the