Florida Boot Camps are Exempt from the Review of State Child Abuse Investigators
Saturday, April 22, 2006 at 11:59PM 
hough a surveillance video played around the country shows guards punching, kneeing and choking Martin Lee Anderson (Pictured above) before he stopped breathing at a Panama City boot camp, Florida child abuse investigators are not looking into whether the boy died from abuse or neglect. That's because both child welfare and juvenile justice administrators are interpreting one sentence in state law as granting Florida's five juvenile boot camps an exemption to requirements that all suspected or alleged child abuse be reported to the Department of Children & Families' abuse hotline. The boot camps are the only programs under contract with the Department of Juvenile Justice that are not required to report suspected abuse to DCF's hotline. They also are the only DJJ programs that are allowed to investigate abuse claims themselves. Chelly Schembera, a retired Florida social service administrator with extensive child welfare, juvenile justice and inspector general experience during 27 years with DCF, said "this is a license to commit police brutality at will,'' she said. Ray J. Thomlison, dean of the Schools of Social Work, Policy and Management at Florida International University, which has trained hundreds of DCF abuse investigators, called the exemption ``extraordinary.'' ''I would not have expected them to be exempt from reporting child abuse. None of the other agencies are,'' he said. ``Obviously, they should be held to the same standards as the rest of the community.'' [MORE]
Force used for minor offenses at Boot Camp
Carol Marbin Miller of The Miami Herald used juvenile justice records and found that force was used against teenage boys in spite of nonviolent behavior at a Florida sheriff's boot camp. "In only eight of the 180 instances documented since January 2003 were the teenagers described as hitting guards, fighting with other youths, threatening to escape or trying to harm themselves." In many of the cases, the guards used the tactics despite written orders by Department of Juvenile Justice chief Anthony Schembri, who in June 2004 banned the use of physical force except in extreme situations. Juvenile justice experts who reviewed the documents at The Miami Herald's request said the treatment of the youths was unjustifiable. [MORE]
Reader Comments (2)
First, I would like you to accept my condolences. For my own experiences, the grief is overwhelming and it will increase with the time. The death of a son is an insurmountable loss. My name is Beatriz Luis-Garcia and 25 months ago my son Leonardo Barquin was assassinated by a policeman in Miami. His name is officer Jorge Espinosa and at the time of the incident, he had a record of police brutality. More than two years later, the case is still in the Attorney Office. This killer shouted my son three times in the back, then handcuff and beat him. Even when my son was a minor child, they didn’t call me; consequently he died ALONE 6 hours later in the hospital. After this horrible murder, many more persons had been killed by the police. Let me tell you that the police are well-connected with the mafia; they have power and the right to use gums. We, as mothers, need to fight together to change the law that allow a police to comeback to the streets after an assassination, they must be automatically suspended. This pain can not be compare with anything, literally the HEART HURT. These criminals must go before the judge and pay for what they did it. I made a wed page to my son -------------------- there you can find statistics of people killed by the police and other case of police brutality here in Miami.
We need to be together, we need to be strong to encourage the law. Receive a big hug of a mother that as you is in pain. My prays are with you, and remember your son as well as mine and others mom’s sons, with the same unhappy end, are angels, from the sky they are taking care of us and will give us the strength to encourage the law.
I am with you for what you need,a hug.
Beatriz Luis-Garcia.
www.leonardobarquin.com