April 6, 2006

Dear Editor:

On April 5, your "Cut-rate rehabilitation ruining juvenile justice" discussed the need for a rate increase for juvenile justice providers. You said that "when you try to rehabilitate youth in trouble with the law on the cheap . it doesn't work." The members of The Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations agree with your position.

The bulk of our membership is made up of companies that provide adult incarceration services; we operate private prisons. Regrettably, most of the offenders we house began their criminal behavior while they were still juveniles.

When considering the cost to society, the victim costs, and the costs of the Florida Department of Corrections, it becomes clear that an investment in the life of a juvenile in trouble now has the potential to significantly reduce costs in the future.

Our organization believes that most juvenile offenders are best served in the juvenile justice system, and that it is essential for Florida to invest the funds necessary to ensure that these young people receive the treatment, education, and rehabilitative services needed to get them off the road to adult prison.

APCTO joins the Florida Juvenile Justice Association and the Palm Beach Post in urging the legislature to provide the needed funding.

Sincerely,
 

 
Paul Doucette
Association of Private Correctional and Treatment Organizations
www.apcto.org

Monday, April 03, 2006

What happens when you try to rehabilitate youth in trouble with the law on the cheap? It doesn't work. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice continues to ignore that fact, despite an abundance of proof among the more than 95,000 youth under its supervision. As The Post reported last week, DJJ sought bids for a new, Palm Beach County-based, high-security program for 80 boys and got no takers. That was hardly unpredictable - the agency offered to spend about $40 less per teen per day than the state's typical rate. Instead of reconsidering the $124.80-per-teen-per-day rate, DJJ is negotiating with Sarasota-based Youth Services International, which is owned by a company DJJ cited seven years ago for abuse and mismanagement of a program for 350 boys in Pahokee. Youth Services International's head is the founder of Correctional Services Corp., which in 1998 mismanaged the Pahokee Youth Development Center. The company did not train its guards well, used excessive force against the youth and refused to release teens so the company could cheat the state out of more money. A DJJ spokeswoman's pledge, if a contract is awarded, to monitor Youth Services' performance, "as we do all programs," is of little assurance. DJJ's oversight failed to prevent guards at a Bay County detention center from kneeing, kicking and dragging a 14-year-old, using restraint techniques DJJ had banned in 2004. After 30 minutes of the brutality, Martin Lee Anderson died. In that case, as with Correctional Services in 1998, the state's first priority was hiding the abuse. The Florida Juvenile Justice Association, which represents private contractors, concluded in a recent report that "Florida's Juvenile Justice System has reached the breaking point." The information in the report, which urged a 30 percent increase in resources, should not be dismissed as merely an effort to squeeze more money out of the state. In fact, providing the intensive medical services and security needed by delinquent youth, many of whom have mental illness, a history of sexual abuse and drug and alcohol addiction, is costly. Privatizing has allowed abuses that might become public to linger behind a fire wall of denial. But even with 80 percent of juvenile justice services under private management, DJJ is not absolved of the responsibility to ensure that education and medical needs are met and to protect the children in its care. With more than 150,000 delinquency referrals a year, DJJ cannot afford to hire companies that act in their own financial interest and not in the best interest of children. Perhaps the agency has been too consumed with its own misplaced priorities to notice.