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Posted on Thu, Feb. 23, 2006
JUVENILE JUSTICE
During Crisis, DJJ Chief Stays Out of Spotlight
The head of the state juvenile justice agency is
keeping an uncharacteristically low profile as it comes under fire in
the death of a teen in its care.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
Where is The Commish?
The colorful, larger-than-life chief of Florida's
juvenile justice department, who came into office vowing to safeguard
the children in his care, has been strangely absent from public view in
the latest crisis to engulf his agency: the death of a 14-year-old boy
in a juvenile boot camp.
''I think Floridians, at a time of crisis, expect
the skipper to be at the helm of the ship,'' said Roy Miller, who heads
the Florida Children's Campaign, an influential juvenile justice
advocacy group. ``The absence of the skipper at the time a child dies
raises serious questions about leadership.''
Still, Miller and others do not believe Anthony
Schembri has gone missing of his own accord.
Some lawmakers and advocates say they have detected
a widening rift between Schembri, a flamboyant character who was the
inspiration for the television show The Commish, and his boss Gov. Jeb
Bush -- a charge Schembri vehemently denies.
''Nothing could be further from the truth,''
Schembri told The Miami Herald Wednesday. ``I run things past the boss.
We agree on things. I'm his expert. He expects me to come up with
solutions. I don't bring every problem to him.''
Observers of state government say there are some
signs of Schembri's fading influence:
When 14-year-old Martin Anderson died hours after
being manhandled by guards at a Panama City juvenile boot camp,
Schembri's statement of condolence was vetted by Gov. Jeb Bush's press
office. When the state's most powerful legislative committee met last
week to rough up Schembri's agency and demand answers in the boot camp
death, the DJJ secretary wasn't in the building.
Schembri said that though he knew the committee had
scheduled the hearing, he chose to keep a ''longstanding commitment''
out of town.
USUALLY OUT FRONT
Schembri has never been accused of keeping a low
profile. His exploits as police chief in Rye, N.Y., for 13 years formed
the basis for the police drama The Commish. Schembri helped write the
show.
He was put in charge of New York City's unwieldy
jail system by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1994, only to lose the job
because he was unwilling to move his wife and son to the city from the
suburbs. He drives around the capital in an ersatz police cruiser with
flashing lights.
But at a time when Floridians are paying the most
attention, he has had little to say.
Schembri said he wants to stay out of the way of
the agencies investigating the teen's death: ``That's why DJJ is taking
a back seat.''
Schembri inherited the agency a year after its
worst scandal: the June 2003 appendicitis death of Opa-locka teen Omar
Paisley at the Miami juvenile lockup. He said at the time his first
priority would be to make sure no other child suffered a similar fate.
He backed up his promises:
He instituted surprise inspections of the state's
162 youth camps, so operators couldn't make cosmetic improvements while
running shoddy programs. He announced a ''Youth Rights Policy'' that
banned aggressive restraint techniques that harmed children. And he
fired his hand-picked chief of the Miami lockup after five months,
saying the man failed to ``ensure the continued safety of the youths in
our care.''
What Schembri hasn't done, a former high-ranking
DJJ official said, is keep the long-troubled agency -- a continuing
thorn in the governor's side -- out of the newspapers. 'The governor's
entire mantra was, `Keep it quiet. Don't let anything happen,' '' the
ex-official, who requested anonymity, said.
Beginning around December -- shortly after the
disappearance of surveillance tapes at a lockup where a disabled teen
allegedly was raped by a known sex offender -- Schembri's public profile
shrank even as his chief of staff's grew.
The chief of staff: Chris Caballero, who had been
deputy director of Cabinet affairs in the governor's office. It was
Caballero who fielded questions from lawmakers Jan. 12, a week after
Martin died.
''I can't be every place,'' Schembri said. ``I have
longstanding commitments -- up to November of next year.''
But longstanding critics of the agency are
unconvinced.
''It seems as if every major issue of concern has
been dealt with by'' Caballero, said Cathy Corry, a Pinellas County
woman who heads Justice 4 Kids, a DJJ advocacy group. Corry is keeping
detailed records of the many conversations she has had in recent months
with Caballero.
Said state Rep. Gus Barreiro, who heads the
powerful Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee: ''If he was running
the agency, his philosophical view would have been that, if he had the
opportunity, he would have shut [the boot camps] down,'' Barreiro said.
RIFT DISPUTED
Schembri insists there is no rift between him and
the governor's office, and there are no philosophical disagreements.
''The governor was there when I announced the Youth Rights Policy,''
Schembri said. ''The governor was there when I announced I was
eliminating'' restraint techniques designed to induce pain. ''The
governor was there when I eliminated that barbaric chair,'' he added,
referring to a restraint chair that immobilized children.
''We are philosophically wedded to the same
thing,'' Schembri said. ``He gives me elbow room.''
Bush spokesman Russell Schweiss said: ``Anthony
Schembri runs the Departemnt of Juvenile Justice. The governor has full
confidence in him.''
Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this
report.
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