A 20-month investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has concluded that Florida’s youth-correction system is so poorly run that the conditions which exist violate the Constitution.
In a harsly worded 28-page report, the DOJ Civil Rights Division said, children are assaulted by officers, lack access to needed medical care and are severely punished for minor infractions, the miamiherald.com reports.
While the authors of the report concentrated their review on two large youth facilities in North Florida – Dozier and the Jackson Juvenile Offender Center – they believe that similar conditions pervade all youth prisions throughout the state.
“These conditions return youth to the community no better — and likely less-equipped to succeed than when they were first incarcerated,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez wrote in a Dec. 1 letter to Gov. Rick Scott, noting that such practices “erode public confidence in the juvenile justice system and interfere with the state’s efforts to reduce crime.”
