Boot camp
fallout
Wednesday, March
15, 2006
A second autopsy
performed in Tampa on Monday revealed
14-year-old Martin Anderson didn't die of
natural causes or a blood disease two months
ago.
A videotaped
beating by camp guards may be to blame.
While a special
prosecutor isn't ready to announce the
official cause of death, the new results are
fueling an already-intense debate about the
way the state's boot camps are run.
It's a late
addition to this year's legislative agenda,
and people on both sides of the issue say
rightly so.
What's at stake
isn't just one family's grief. It's a system
almost everyone agrees needs fixing -- boot
camps and detention facilities where
military-style obedience is a fact of life.
"In some cases,
jails are better than what they're
experiencing in the detention centers and
the boot camps, and we certainly don't want
them in jail," Reverend Bruce White of the
Pinellas County Juvenile Justice Council
said.
The experience
they're pointing to is fast becoming one of
the most talked-about topics at the Capitol.
Members of the state House Juvenile Justice
Committee all agree the boot camp system
needs fixing.
"It's
frustrating as a policymaker to continuously
deal with failed systems and not having a
way out," Republican Mitch Needelman of
Melbourne said. "If there's some way we can
duplicate that process and look at the DJJ
(Department of Juvenile Justice – link this
http://www.djj.state.fl.us/ ), maybe we can
get away from crisis management and get back
to turning these kids around."
Committee
co-chair Needelman pointed to the most
successful of the state's four other boot
camps in Martin County. However, it also
happens to be on this year's budget
chopping-block. Some said there's a simple
fix. Take the money the now-closed Bay
County camp was receiving and give it to the
Martin County camp.
"Whether it's a
dollar or $800,000, we're going to give it
to you because we don't want you to shut
down and we want to make sure that you're
the one we're duplicating," Republican
Gustavo Barreiro from Miami said.
If the system
really does need fixing there are also calls
for greater accountability. Maybe taking the
way schools are rated and crafting a report
card for boot camps. But a system like that
could take years to create.
Another proposal
on the committee's agenda is to take some of
the Bay County money to fund an after-care
program at a Sarasota County boot camp. The
Martin County sheriff said a similar program
made his camp successful.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2006/3/15/148859.html
