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| Big trouble with for-profit juvies |
| By Orlando Sentinel |
| Published: 04/19/2004 |
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One of the most egregious child abusers in Florida is the very agency that's supposed to rehabilitate troubled youths: the state Department of Juvenile Justice. It is responsible for 661 confirmed cases of abuse or neglect since1994, according to records from the Florida Department of Children & Families obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. Nearly two-thirds of those cases occurred in the past four years. Since 1998, at least six boys died from injuries suffered at juvenile-justice facilities, although state investigators blame only two on abuse and neglect. Among them is 12-year-old Michael Wiltsie, who was crushed by a 320-pound counselor trying to calm the boy by pinning him to the ground at a facility near Ocala. During the past few months, the agency has fallen into turmoil. It has faced a grand-jury probe, a legislative inquiry and public outrage in South Florida because its employees did nothing to save a 17-year-old boy who suffered an agonizing death from appendicitis. It also has lost more than a dozen employees, including its top two officials, who have taken leaves of absence. But the Sentinel's investigation reveals problems more widespread than those in South Florida. Records show cases of abuse and neglect throughout the statewide network of about 200 lockups, boot camps, residential facilities and other programs. In case after case, records suggest an agency that cannot control its employees or those of the dozens of private companies it pays to run most of its field operations. In fact, last year those privately run programs -- most of them long-term residential facilities -- were the source of 80 percent of the department's abuse and neglect cases. The statewide total alarms state Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a member of a select legislative committee investigating the agency. "The problems at DJJ are deep institutional problems," he said. C. George Denman, acting secretary at juvenile justice, acknowledges the department must change. "Any time we have one confirmed case of child abuse, it bothers us," said Denman, who has been on the job less than 60 days. "The higher the numbers go, the worse it is." But given that the department oversees so many programs, Denman said, the numbers are easier to understand. "I think DJJ is a good public agency." It is home to about 8,500 juveniles, generally ages 11 to 18, who have broken the law. They are held from a few months to more than a year. For months, DJJ has been under siege. Grand juries in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties conducted separate investigations in the fall and winter into allegations of abuse and neglect at two facilities. Both produced reports that were extremely critical of the agency. In their wake, more than a dozen employees have departed. They include DJJ's top two executives, Secretary W.G. "Bill" Bankhead and Deputy Secretary Francisco Alarcon. |
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