Manatee's boot camp shuts down

SYLVIA LIM
July 1, 2006

MANATEE - The Manatee County Sheriff's Office will not continue its juvenile boot camp program under a new state law that goes into effect today.

Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells, along with sheriffs in Pinellas and Martin counties, declined to participate in the Sheriffs' Training and Respect program, or STAR, saying the new program would end up costing local taxpayers more.

"After we put a budget to the new reforms, we couldn't afford it," Wells said Friday. "County taxpayers would have to pick up well over $1.5 million (a year)."

As of today, the Polk County Sheriff's Office is the only agency in Florida that has agreed to proceed with STAR.

The death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson in the Bay County Sheriff's Office boot camp in January prompted legislators to ban physical discipline in such programs. Anderson died after being roughed up by guards.

The STAR program seeks to focus on education, job training, community service and counseling.

The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice allocated a $10.6 million budget to fund STAR.

"That's a 20-percent increase in the STAR program, compared to the boot camp," said Cynthia Lorenzo, the department's spokeswoman.

STAR would cost the Manatee County Sheriff's Office $3.9 million a year, and the state would pay $2.4 million of that amount, said Dave Bristow, spokesman for the sheriff's office. Manatee taxpayers would have to pay the remainder, roughly $1.5 million.

Last year, the Manatee boot camp received almost $1 million from the state, Bristow said.

Though the former boot camp had been running in the red by up to $200,000, Wells said the loss was manageable.

"It was more of a reasonable thing because there was excess from another program that made it work," Wells said.

But with STAR, the deficit would grow larger each year, Wells said.

Wells said the most expensive components of the STAR program would be the hiring and training of more staff, rising annual salaries from the additional staff itself would be a fiscal headache.

"I don't know how to pull rabbits out of hats," Wells said. "I don't know how to look out in advance and project the deficit it was going to create."

Plus, the boot camps in Manatee, Pinellas, Martin and Polk counties would have to take in offenders from other counties, making it a tough sell for county commissioners, Wells said.

Officials at the Pinellas sheriff's office agreed, saying they wouldn't be able to turn away offenders ordered to attend the camps.

"We have had cadets from Collier County to the other coast," said Sgt. Jim Bordner, spokesman for the Pinellas sheriff's office. "It was an issue here, it was difficult to ask the board (of county commissioners) to fund this. We can't guarantee local benefits of the program."

The Pinellas sheriff's office was also looking at a deficit of up to $1.4 million in the first year alone, Bordner said.

But Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's office signed a one-year contract to continue with STAR.

Judd is optimistic he can balance the books.

Polk County's STAR program received $400,000 more from the state than what it received to run its boot camp last year. The Department of Juvenile Justice allotted $4.4 million to Judd's agency to run STAR this year.

Judd's program almost shut down last October due to a lack of funding. With a $200,000 boost from legislators in 2005, Judd said his financial concerns were alleviated.

"I believe we can make the program even more successful," he said.

With only one STAR program to fund, juvenile justice spokeswoman Lorenzo said the rest of the money would be assigned to other programs.

"We're still open to talking to other sheriffs and the possibility of beginning a STAR program elsewhere," she said.

So far, there have been no takers, Lorenzo said.

Despite the fact that the Martin Lee Anderson Act goes into effect today, Wells still maintains that legislators made a hasty decision by passing a law without doing their homework.

"What has happened was a knee jerk," he said. "They lose sight at how much reform is going to cost."

- The Associated Press contributed to this report

County won't participate in STAR, Florida's new juvenile justice program