EMILY MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD/MCT
PRISONERS
OF PROFIT
resigned, in early 1994, state juvenile justice officials convinced
U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul
to release Florida from federal
monitoring, arguing that the state
had the proper controls in place to
effectively treat and rehabilitate
the youth under its care.
The decision coincided with
a rush to construct new youth
prisons across the state. Several headline-grabbing murders
by Florida teenagers in the early
1990s had sparked fears in the
tourism industry, and state politi-
HUFFINGTON
11.03.13
cians began toughening penalties
for young offenders.
“Some of the top criminologists were basically scaring the
hell out of people, saying, ‘We’ve
got this wave of new barbarians
at the door,’” said Barry Krisberg,
a criminal justice expert who is
director of research and policy
at the University of California,
Berkeley’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social
Policy. “It’s true that youth crime
rates were rising. But they were
projecting that this was going to
double, triple. It was outrageous.”
Amid the prison-building boom,
James F. Slattery and his com-
Crosses made
of metal pipes
mark the
graves of 32
unidentified
bodies in a
small, hidden
graveyard near
the former
Dozier School
for Boys in
Marianna, Fla.