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Florida State Reform
School: a timeline
June 4, 1897: Lawmakers vote to
establish a state reform school of ''not less than 50 nor more than
320 acres.'' It is to be ''not simply a place of correction,'' but a
school where young criminals can be ``restored to the community with
purposes and character fitting a good citizen.''
April 2, 1898: City leaders in
Marianna secure the winning bid to operate the new state reform
school, offering 1,200 acres of land and $1,400 in cash for its
development.
Jan. 1, 1900: The Florida State
Reform School opens.
June 1, 1903: A legislative
committee reports it ``found [inmates] in irons, just as common
criminals.''
1911: A report of a special joint
committee on the reform school says: ``the inmates were at times
unnecessarily and brutally punished, the instrument of punishment
being a leather strap fastened to a wooden handle.''
June 5, 1913: The school's name is
changed to Florida Industrial School for Boys.
Nov. 18, 1914: A fire erupts in a
''broken and dilapidated'' stove in the white boys' dormitory while
almost all of the staff members were in town. Six boys and two staff
members die in the fire, resulting in a grand jury report.
Oct. 22, 1918: A flu epidemic
strikes. The mayor of Marianna sends a telegram to Tallahassee:
``Industrial school in critical shape. Need nurses and doctor, am
using every person able, so many places cannot attend to all.''
Jan. 4, 1926: A committee is
appointed to investigate whether boys could be paroled from the
Industrial School for Boys to relieve ``crowded conditions at the
institution.''
Jan. 25, 1946: Arthur G. Dozier, a
schoolteacher, is appointed superintendent of the camp. Later, the
reform school is named for him.
July 8, 1958: Michael O'McCarthy,
then named Michael Babarsky, is recaptured after an escape one day
earlier. He says he was taken to the White House and beaten with a
leather strap.
Dec. 24, 1982: Advocates for
children and prison reform file a statewide class-action lawsuit to
reform the state's juvenile justice system. Among their allegations:
Children, some as young as 10, are held in severe crowding and
sometimes are shackled and ``hogtied.''
May 5, 1987: State officials
announce plans for a sweeping overhaul of the youth corrections
system to end the four-year legal battle between children's
advocates and the state.
Florida State Reform School: A Timeline
Report documenting beatings with leather strap (1911)
Grand
jury report on abuses (1914)
Act
creating the reformatory (1897)
Senate committee's hearing on troubles at
Dozier (1903)
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