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CURTIS KRUEGERThe deaths of two jailed teens have state legislators turning to the public for information and answers in an Oct. 8 meeting at St. Petersburg College.
CLEARWATER - Four months after a teenager was killed in Pinellas County's Juvenile Detention Center, a legislative committee says it wants to come here for answers.
State Rep. Gustavo Barreiro said the deaths of Danny Matthews, who was killed in May by a fellow inmate in the Pinellas detention center, and another youth who died in June of a burst appendix in Miami's center, raise troubling questions about how the state Department of Juvenile Justice operates its 25 detention facilities.
"I don't think they're safe at all," said Barreiro, R-Miami Beach, chairman of the Select Committee on Juvenile Detention Facilities. He said Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary Bill Bankhead "needs to be held accountable for what's happening in our detention centers."
Committee members are asking the public to come forward and share information about the Pinellas Juvenile Detention Center and other juvenile facilities in a hearing. The meeting will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 8 at the Fine Arts Auditorium at the Clearwater campus of St. Petersburg College, 2465 Drew St., Clearwater.
"In Pinellas County there's been serious concerns about the conditions of the Juvenile Detention Center," said Barreiro. The Pinellas JDC, a jail for youths charged in the juvenile system, is in the Largo area and holds about 120.
In the Miami case, 17-year-old Omar Paisley died after a burst appendix, even though he had reportedly complained of stomach pain for three days. Detention workers did not call 911.
"This not calling 911, as far as I'm concerned, was unforgivable," said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, who also is a member of the committee.
Bankhead, the state Juvenile Justice secretary, said in an interview he agrees both deaths need to be carefully reviewed. The DJJ's Inspector General's Office is looking into Matthews' death, and Miami authorities still are reviewing Paisley's death.
But Bankhead disagreed with Barreiro, who has said the incidents point to poor training among DJJ staff and a willingness to overlook faults in the department's employees.
Bankhead pointed out that the DJJ had stopped using remote controls to unlock doors at the Pinellas JDC since Matthews' death. Matthews died after he and another inmate were released from their cells and began fighting, after having threatened each other all day. A detention employee told sheriff's investigators he had released the two by mistake.
Asked what the department could learn from Matthews' death, Bankhead said, "You need to pay attention. Everyone who works in those facilities has to pay attention all the time. Look for things that are about to happen, I think that's key."
Although Barreiro said the Miami case showed the DJJ had no procedure in place for having detention workers call 911 in the case of emergency, Bankhead said "that's just plain wrong."
"I don't think we know if it was handled correctly or not" because an investigation is continuing, he added.
Bankhead said he had worked to increase the training professionalism of the detention officers, who a few years ago didn't even have uniforms.
Clearwater activist Cathy Corry, who runs a Web site critical of the Department of Juvenile Justice called www.justice4kids.org said she hoped people would come to the Oct. 8 hearing "to relate abuses and neglect that are occuring in the juvenile justice facilities."
She is calling for creation of an independent oversight committee for the DJJ. She also said the state should look for alternatives to locking up youths who have committed minor crimes. "They're mostly low-level, adolescent misdeeds, and I believe that we have an epidemic of criminalizing adolescents," she said.
- Information from the Miami Herald was used in this story.