Huffington Magazine Issue 73 | Page 75

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