|
"If I can't make a kid puke or piss in his pants on his first day, I'm not doing my job."
A youth trainer at a juvenile facility
Jordan Riak's
"Boot
Camp for Kids: Torturing Kids for Fun and Profit"
Blogs of
Interest:
Drill instructors Michael Picardi,
left, and Matthew
Kingsley yell at a recruit. "This is not stinkin' Burger
King," Kingsley said later, "and you will not have it
your way here."
Lock Up, Break Down
A tear runs down the face of a juvenile as he goes
through
the intake process of the Pinellas County Boot Camp.
The
same boot camp were Martin Lee Anderson died after
being
beaten by guards.
[Times photos: John Pendygraft]
An Excellent Reason Not to Join the Military:
Boot camp
mentality,
a woman's perspective -
excerpts:
"Boot camp systematically breaks a recruit down physically and
emotionally.'
"The thirty minutes of humiliation seemed to last an eternity."
Jordan Riak's
"Boot
Camp for Kids: Torturing Kids for Fun and Profit"
"...
teens were
manhandled for minor infractions -- for simply shrugging,
smiling or smirking"
BOOT CAMP ABUSE & DEATHS IN FLORIDA
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Department of Juvenile Justice in Florida: as of 2004, there were 661 confirmed
cases of abuse
or
neglect since 1994 -
Zero Tolerance
for Youth in Florida
Here
is an example of just a few:
Chad Andrew Franza,16,
died on August 17, 1998, at Polk County Boot Camp, Florida,
after he
hanged himself from an air-conditioning vent with his boot laces.
He had been in the military-style
program in Bartow for 24 days. His parents received $240,000 from
the county, the state, and a
private health care company for their son's death.
Daniel Matthews, died at age 17
"Angel above"
Daniel had one of
the purest hearts I shall ever know and sang with tears in his
eyes every night of his life to me , My heart shall go on . Daniel died 5-31-2003
in PCDJJ , Florida. His heart shall always go on ... Daniel got into a
scuffle with
another child and died from a single blow to the head.
 Martin
Lee Anderson, died at age 14
Another father grieves for the loss of his son
... a son who
should still be alive today, a son who was beaten to death
by those who were supposed to help him. His son's death
was caught on video, and it is our hope that he will not have
died in vain.
Willie Lawrence Durden III,
17,
of Jacksonville was found unconscious
in his cell at the Cypress
Creek Juvenile Offender Corrections Center in Citrus County in
October 2003. An April 14, 2006,
ABC Action News
article indicated
staffers should be "instructed on a recurring basis the
importance
of calling 911 immediately if a situation appears to be life
threatening." A guard found Willie Lawrence
Durden III cold and unresponsive in his cell, but 20 minutes passed
before staffers called 911. The
guard initially thought Willie was playing a prank. An autopsy
showed Durden died of natural causes
from a heart abnormality. His body showed no sign of abuse. A
toxicology screen was negative for
drugs. The state reported that Durden died of natural causes
related to ventricular arrhythmia, which
is an abnormal electrical conduction that prevents the heart from
pumping blood. The arrhythmia was
caused by a thickening of the walls of the heart and an enlargement
of the size of the chambers.
Omar Paisley,
also 17, died on June 9, 2003, from a burst
appendix that went
untreated at a juvenile detention facility in Miami Dade Regional JDC, Florida.
Omar complained of severe pain and spent the last three days of his life,
which
ended in agony, lying on a concrete bed in Room 13 of Module Three in the
department of Juvenile Justice Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention
Center.
Despite his repeated requests for help, Omar was denied that which
most of us
take for granted, appropriate and timely medical care. Omar died a very
painful
death that was completely preventable.
The Grand Jury issued their
Final Report
where they made recommendations for the future.
The
state paid Paisley's mother $1.45 million to settle a lawsuit filed
over his death, but no amount of
money will bring back her child. And children continue to die. In
fact just months later, in October
2003, Willie Lawrence Durden III was found dead in his cell.
Medical attention should have been
sought sooner, which could have saved his life. Sadly, the guard
believed he was faking so did
nothing for 20 minutes after noticing he was not moving. His life
could have been saved in those
20 minutes.
Shawn Smith, age 13, died while
incarcerated at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center in
Daytona, Florida. Shawn complained that he was constantly harassed,
bullied and beaten at the
hands of those entrusted with his care. Those hands belonged to
employees of the Florida Department
of Juvenile Justice. On October 30, 2001 — when the pain of dealing
with his daily torture proved more
that this child's ability to cope — Shawn Smith completed suicide.
Website with
more information re: Florida's Juvenile's Justice System:
www.justice4kids.org
|
