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Bill Bankhead dies; was lawmaker, DJJ secretary

TALLAHASSEE - Bill Bankhead, who headed the state's Juvenile Justice Department after 20 years as a state legislator, died Sunday of cancer. He was 64.

Mr. Bankhead, who had been under hospice care for several weeks, died at his Ponte Vedra home.

Mr. Bankhead battled cancer for several years and was placed on medical leave in February 2004. Gov. Jeb Bush appointed his replacement, Anthony Schembri, last May.

A Republican, Mr. Bankhead was elected to the Florida House in 1978 and to the Senate 10 years later. He was named by Bush in January 1999 to run the agency responsible for supervising the state's juvenile justice programs.

"Bill Bankhead was a caring leader who devoted more than a quarter century to serving the people of Florida," Bush said in a statement. "He was a kind and thoughtful man, whose legacy extends far beyond public policy."

DJJ was created in October 1994, spun off from the same agency that spawned the Department of Children and Families, after a string of violent attacks on foreign tourists gave the state a global reputation for violent young thugs.

DJJ took heavy criticism after the June 2003 death of a 17-year-old at the Miami-Dade County detention center. Omar Paisley, jailed for slashing a neighbor with a soda can, died of a burst appendix after three days of pleading futilely for medical attention.

The teen's death led to dramatic changes at the agency. Three upper-level managers were pushed out, and 18 other workers were suspended or quit. The department added more cameras, phones and better intercoms to its centers, and more recently, intensified its training of workers.

During the 2004 Legislature, then-Senate President Jim King engineered a way to help Mr. Bankhead keep his health insurance if he left government.

Mr. Bankhead grew up in Jacksonville and graduated from the University of Florida in 1963. He retired from CSX Transportation in Jacksonville before taking over at DJJ.

His wife, Diana; two children, Bill and Brooke; and his mother survive.

[Last modified March 8, 2005, 16:52:55]