''We had an opportunity,'' Barreiro said. ``The state had an
opportunity, and the jury had an opportunity to send a strong and
loud message to everyone who works with kids, especially troubled
kids: `If you hurt one of these kids, or fail to protect one of these
kids, there will be a consequence.'

``And they blew it.''


BOOT-CAMP DEATH | JUVENILE JUSTICE

Teenager's death exposed use of violence on youths

As children's advocates ponder the verdict in the Panhandle, they
also wonder: Is Florida a better place for troubled children after
the controversial boot-camp death?

Posted on Sat, Oct. 13, 2007

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@...

Despite their disappointment with acquittals in the Martin Lee
Anderson case, children's advocates and juvenile justice experts said
Friday the case has already had positive consequences for the state.

Among them: All of Florida's military-style boot camps have been shut
down, and painful restraints intended to force unruly juveniles to
comply have been banned.

''Regardless of how any of us feel about the verdict, the best thing
to come out of this case is that it brought to the surface how much
we had correctionalized adolescents and juveniles,'' said Nancy
Hamilton, who runs a St. Petersburg drug treatment program and is the
former head of Florida's Juvenile Justice Association.

Said incoming Senate Democratic leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee: ``If
nothing else, Martin's death caused not only a shake-up of our
juvenile justice system, but the way in which our troubled youth are
rehabilitated.''

On Friday, a Bay County jury acquitted seven guards and a nurse of
manslaughter charges in the Jan. 6, 2006, death of Martin, a 14-year-
old Panama City youth sent to a military-style boot camp after he
violated probation on a joyriding charge. After Martin's death,
lawmakers banned the use of force and violence in controlling youths
in state custody.

Retired Miami-Dade juvenile Judge Tom Petersen, who also taught
juvenile justice for 10 years at the University of Miami, said the
teen's death forced juvenile justice administrators to confront an
ugly truth: Violent punishments and military-style discipline don't
work in rehabilitating at-risk youths.

''Effective programs win the hearts and minds of kids,'' Petersen
said. ``You can't physically force them into conforming their
behavior. Those kinds of things don't work.''

State Rep. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat who helped lead the
charge to reform Florida's youth corrections effort, called Martin's
death a ''tragedy'' but said Florida's children will be better served
now that the state's boot camps are gone.

''The boot camps -- which essentially made pain an instrument of
attitude adjustment -- have been wholly, I hope, abandoned,'' Gelber
said.

Carlos Martinez, chief assistant public defender in Miami and a
longtime advocate for children in Florida's juvenile justice system,
said fallout from the tragedy -- as well as the 2004 appendicitis
death of another youth, Omar Paisley, in Miami's juvenile lockup --
may help advocates' push for a juvenile justice ombudsman or
citizen's review board to sort out allegations of mistreatment at
youth camps.

''We hope this will lead, once and for all, to the creation of an
independent body that oversees facilities,'' Martinez said.

``There has got to be more accountability.''

''A lot of reforms have happened because of Martin Anderson and Omar
Paisley -- let's not forget Omar,'' Martinez added. ``But there are a
lot of children in the custody of the state. And we are obligated to
make sure nothing happens to them.''

Though he acknowledges the significant reforms that followed Martin's
death, former state Rep. Gus Barreiro, a longtime critic of the
state's juvenile justice system, said he was heartbroken by Friday's
verdict, which he thinks sends the message that caregivers can
manhandle their charges with impunity.

''We had an opportunity,'' Barreiro said. ``The state had an
opportunity, and the jury had an opportunity to send a strong and
loud message to everyone who works with kids, especially troubled
kids: `If you hurt one of these kids, or fail to protect one of these
kids, there will be a consequence.'

``And they blew it.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/270164.html


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