Burning Down the House : The End of Juvenile Prison (9781595589668) (60 page)

14. The Real Recidivism Problem: One Hundred Years of Reform and Relapse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys

290
  
The Boys of the Dark
: Robin Gaby Fisher, Michael O'McCarthy, and Robert W. Straley,
The Boys of the Dark
(New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2010).

292
  
Reporters from the
St. Petersburg Times
: Ben Montgomery and Waveney Ann Moore, “For Their Own Good: A St. Petersburg Times Special Report on Child Abuse at the Florida School for Boys,”
St. Petersburg Times
, April 17, 2009,
www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/for-their-own-good-a-st-petersburg-times-special-report-on-child-abuse-at/992939
.

292
  
“The men remember the same things”
: Ibid.

293
  
letter to Florida state officials
: Roger Kiser, “The Horrors of The White House,” Coalition Against Institutionalized Child Abuse,
www.caica.org/horrors%20of%20the%20white%20house.htm
.

293
  
“The two men picked me up”
: Roger Dean Kiser,
The White House Boys: An American Tragedy
(New York: HCI, 2009).

293
  
Kiser received several responses to his letter
: Kiser, “Horrors of the White House.”

294
  
videotaped deposition of an elderly Troy Tidwell
: “Portions of Troy Tidwell Deposition,” posted by RDK (Roger Dean Kiser),
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fr1x_Jf2nA
.

295
  
the video they produced to accompany it
: “Flowers of Marianna Video,” posted by RDK (Roger Dean Kiser),
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJDQWmzfiI
.

295
  
Reports from state representatives
: All quotations from these investigations are cited in Randy Lee Loftis, “UNT Sleuths to Help Florida Identify Remains from Boys' Reform School,”
Dallas Morning News
, October 5, 2013,
www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20131005-unt-sleuths-to-help-florida-id-remains-from-boys-reform-school.ece
.

295
  
“Thirty five cases of pneumonia”
: Ibid.

296
  
Reforms were ordered
: Ben Montgomery and Waveney Ann Moore, “Florida Juvenile Justice: 100 Years of Hell at the Dozier School for Boys,”
Tampa Bay Times
, October 9, 2009,
www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/florida-juvenile-justice-100-years-of-hell-at-the-dozier-school-for-boys/1042880
.

297
  
“When the media was around”
: Ibid.

297
  
The truth was that abuse remained rampant
: “Investigation of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and the Jackson Juvenile Offender Center, Marianna, Florida,” U.S. Department of Justice, December 1, 2011, p. 6,
www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/dozier_findltr_12-1-11.pdf
.

297
  
One boy . . . asked to call the abuse hotline
: Ibid.

297
  
Other boys later reported
: Montgomery and Moore, “Florida Juvenile Justice.”

298
  
Florida has embarked on a major reform effort
: See Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, “Roadmap to System Excellence,” October 2012,
www.djj.state.fl.us/roadmap-to-system-excellence
.

298
  
the privately run Thompson Academy
: Susan Ferriss, “Youth Rehabilitation Facilities in Florida Under Scrutiny,” Center for Public Integrity, June 2012,
www.publicintegrity.org/2012/06/21/9176/youth-rehabilitation-centers-florida-under-scrutiny
.

298
  
staff allegedly slammed kids into walls
: Ibid.

299
  
In an official statement
: Ibid.

299
  
Internal documents obtained by the
Huffington Post
: Chris Kirkham, “Prisoners of Profit,”
Huffington Post
, October 22–23, 2013,
projects.huffingtonpost.com/prisoners-of-profit/
; Pam Stillwell, “Subject: FW: PROGRAM AREA,” e-mail to Jerry Blanton, March 29, 2004, accessed at
projects.huffingtonpost.com/prisoners-of-profit/documents/784333-stillwellprobs
. Other documents about private facilities in Florida and elsewhere, including Thompson, can be accessed at
projects.huffingtonpost.com/prisoners-of-profit/documents
.

299
  
a November 2013 follow-up account
: Chris Kirkham, “Troubled Youth Prison Company Wins Even More Contracts,”
Huffington Post
, November 14, 2013,
www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/14/youth-services-international-contracts_n_4269869.html
.

299
  
Eric Perez died of a cerebral hemorrhage
: Carol Marbin Miller, “As Florida Teen Lay Dying, Jail Guards Refused to Call Help, Believed He Was Faking,”
Miami Herald
, October 19, 2012,
www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/19/3057693/as-florida-teen-lay-dying-jail.html
.

299
  
In August 2012, a guard . . . was arrested
: Carol Marbin Miller, “Video Shows Girl, 15, Battered in Florida Juvenile Prison,”
Miami Herald
, December 12, 2012,
www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/12/3139333/video-shows-15-year-old-girl-being.html
.

299
  
Security camera footage shows other staff
: The footage is posted on the
Miami Herald
website at ibid.

300
  
Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
: Margie Menzel, “Abuse of Girls at Milton Residential Facility Exposes Flaws in Florida's Juvenile Justice,” Flagler
live.com
, December 18, 2012,
flaglerlive.com/48291/milton-detention-abuse/
.

300
  
Only after the department found itself investigating charges
: Sarah Berres and Lynne Hough, “DJJ to Remove Girls from Facility,”
Northwest Florida Daily News
, December 21, 2012,
www.nwfdailynews.com/local/djj-to-remove-girls-from-facility-1.68652
.

300
  
A mental health technician was charged next
: Associated Press, “More Abuse Alleged at Panhandle Juvenile Prison,” February 12, 2013,
WJHG.com
,
www.wjhg.com/news/regional/headlines/More-Abuse-Alleged-at-Panhandle-Juvenile-Prison-190854231.html
.

300
  
U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division
: “Investigation of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.”

301
  
Florida governor Rick Scott approved a land-use agreement
: Lanetra Bennett, “USF Wins Federal Grant for Dozier Research,” Associated Press, August 28, 2013,
www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/215722331.html
.

301
  
Digging began with the exhumation of a ten-year-old boy
: Susan Donaldson James, “Florida Graves Reveal Reform School Horrors, Recall Witnesses and Families,” ABC News, September 6, 2013,
abcnews.go.com/US/florida-graves-reveal-reform-school-horrors-recall-witnesses/story?id=20172337
.

301
  
it is unclear what the final death count will be
: Ben Montgomery, “Cabinet Agrees to Let USF Exhume Bodies at Dozier,”
Miami Herald
, August 6, 2013,
www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/06/3545790/cabinet-agrees-to-let-usf-exhume.html
.

301
  
“regularly appear at the infirmary”
: Fox Butterfield, “Hard Time: A Special Report: Profits at a Juvenile Prison Come with a Chilling Cost,”
New York Times
, July 15, 1998.

302
  
“significant violence”
: “No Better Off: Update on Swanson Center for Youth,” Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, November 2010,
jjpl.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/no-better-off.pdf
.

303
  
Morales v. Turman
: Cat McCulloch, “Youth Solitary Confinement in Texas: A Two-Step in the Right Direction,” ACLU, April 23, 2013,
www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights-criminal-law-reform/youth-solitary-confinement-texas-two-step-right-direction
.

303
  
According to author Kenneth Wooden
: Kenneth Wooden,
Weeping in the Playtime of Others
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976), pp. 5–6.

303
  
After six grueling weeks of this sort of testimony
: Ibid., pp. 8–9.

303
  
In June 2012, officials hoping to curb rising violence
: Incidents of violence in state juvenile facilities more than tripled in the years since the 2007 sex scandals and ensuing reforms.
Texas Tribune
investigation, cited in Michele Deitch, Amy Madore, Kate Vickery, and Alycia Welch,
Understanding and Addressing Youth Violence in the Texas Juvenile Justice Department
, Report to the Office of the Independent Ombudsman, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, May 2013, 13,
www.utexas.edu/lbj/sites/default/files/file/faculty/DeitchUnderstandingandAddressingYouthViolenceinTJJDMay%202013FINAL.pdf
.

304
  
The idea was to isolate and contain those youths
: Brandi Grissom, “Giving Juveniles Intensive Treatment,”
New York Times
, September 1, 2012.

304
  
Early coverage praised Phoenix
: Ibid. See, e.g., Benet Magnuson, a juvenile justice policy analyst with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition: “For years, advocates have called on lawmakers to shutter large institutions in remote areas and to create small treatment-focused centers close to cities. The Phoenix Program, Mr. Magnuson said, shows that plan could work.”

304
  
“what this program was really doing well”
: Patrick Michels, “Texas Bets on Small Fixes to Reduce Violence in Youth Lockups,”
Texas Observer
, September 6, 2012.

304
  
Youths at Phoenix went through a mandatory ten-week Aggression Replacement Training
: “An Adolescent Anger Management Program,” Episcopal Social Services,
www.esswichita.org/youth/
.

304
  
“Structure and personal attention are the priorities”
: Grissom, “Giving Juveniles Intensive Treatment.”

304
  
“There were three staff and multiple youth”
: Independent Ombudsman for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department,
Phoenix Program Special Report
,
www.documentcloud.org/documents/813666-texas-juvenile-justice-department-special-report.html
. The site visits were conducted on September 18 and 20, 2013.

305
  
A grand jury declined to recommend criminal charges
: Tommy Witherspoon, “Legislative Hearings Promised in TYC Incidents,”
Waco Tribune-Herald
, November 9, 2013,
www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_and_trials/legislative-hearings-promised-in-tyc-incidents/article_cc7e357e-8900-5244-bc93-266792ada832.html
.

15. Against Reform: Beyond the Juvenile Prison

308
  
Even in those states being lauded for reform
: Sarah Bryer and Marc Levin, “The Comeback States: Reducing Youth Incarceration in the United States,” National Juvenile Justice Network and Texas Public Policy Foundation, 2013, p. 2,
www.njjn.org/uploads/digital-library/Comeback-States-Report_FINAL.pdf
.

308
  
large-scale juvenile incarceration has been proven many times over to do absolutely nothing to reduce juvenile offending
: Mary Schmich, “Locking Up Juveniles May Plant Seeds of More Crime,”
Chicago Tribune
, July 17, 2013,
www.modelsforchange.net/newsroom/524
.

311
  
“The goal of justice reinvestment”
: Susan B. Tucker and Eric Cadora, “Justice Reinvestment,”
Ideas for an Open Society
3, no. 3 (November 2003),
www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/ideas_reinvestment.pdf
.

312
  
In just a year, the number of juveniles
: Ibid., p. 7.

312
  
“The test for successful deinstitutionalization”
: Jerome G. Miller,
Last One Over the Wall
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1998), p. 154.

313
  
“The [guards union] is the most powerful lobby in California”
: Will Roy, “The Bottom Line: A Former CYA Inmate Refuses to Give Up,”
Youth Outlook
, September 9, 2004,
www.youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=150ce9ed1a4952119c53385b4c9caa97
.

314
  
“The unintended by-product of the keeper-captive coupling”
: Miller,
Last One Over the Wall
, 134.

315
  
the recent decline in juvenile incarceration
: Bryer and Levin, “Comeback States,” p. 4.

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