Fight Club: Senate seeks fix after Miami Herald series documenting juvenile justice deaths, abuses

The first steps in a series of reform designed to increase accountability of state prison and juvenile detention facilities were passed Tuesday by a key committee of the Florida Senate.

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved a series of bills sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg.

The move came in the wake of Fight Club, a Miami Herald investigation spurred by the death of a 17-year-old foster child at the Miami-Dade juvenile lockup. Elord Revolte was killed when he was suddenly attacked by a dozen kicking, punching juvenile detainees. No one was charged, although the the assault erupted in front of video cameras. Two of the detained boys said the onslaught was instigated by a guard, who was offended that Elord had spoken to him disrespectfully.

The Bradenton Herald also published the series.

Over nearly two years, Miami Herald reporters examined that death and others, and documented sexual exploitation of youthful detainees, medical neglect and abusive treatment by underpaid staffers, who sometimes encouraged youths to fight each other in exchange for food rewards.

“Everything points to that we are going to get meaningful reform done,’’ Brandes said after the meeting. “There’s a new vision and an understanding we can’t stay where we are — both fiscal and outcome-based.”

He was confident the reforms could start this year and he said he has sensed “excitement among members on the Senate side and amongst Republican members of the House.”

As chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Appropriations Committee, he expects to wrap the reforms together into a larger bill as early as next week and direct state money into making sure the changes start happening.

Many of the reforms were inspired not only by Fight Club but by a separate Herald investigative series, Cruel and Unusual. It highlighted inmate abuse and management failures at the Departments of Corrections, including many questionable deaths.

Brandes said the Senate’s legislation will produce more oversight of the private companies that operate the 53 residential facilities for juvenile delinquents under contract with DJJ.

Related: Senators demand more state oversight of private juvenile facilities

“We’re talking about more reporting. We’re creating public advocates in those facilities to increase monitoring,’’ Brandes said. “We are going to put cameras in these facilities and are going to provide pay raises so that we can attract higher quality individuals who supervise these kids.”

Brandes said DJJ and FDC have been supportive of the changes and he expects to include in the budget money for DJJ to install two-way communications cameras in the public areas of the privately run facilities to allow for constant monitoring and feedback, he said.

“They’ll be able to view incidences in real time in their most high-risk facilities — not have to go to those facilities and pick up the tape,’’ he said. “They’ll also be able to pass a button and interact immediately in high-risk situations.”

When staff is aware they are being watched and there is a new accountability, Brandes predicts, “there will be a change in behavior.”

In addition, he said there will be a pay raise for officers at juvenile justice facilities.

Among the measures passed Tuesday is an effort to increase oversight at the privately run juvenile detention facilities operated in Florida. SB 1004 would require the Department of Juvenile Justice to allow all legislators, public defenders and members of the governor’s agencies to make surprise visits to any state juvenile detention facilities. It would also stipulate that DJJ “may not unreasonably withhold access to reporters or writers in the media space.”

Another bill would expand the state’s supervised community release program for inmates at the end of their sentences to help them better transition into society. Under SB 1208, they would allow the Department of Corrections to choose inmates who could benefit from transition programs by helping get them into into work release programs, on electronic monitors and into community housing during the last 90 days of their sentence.

“This allows us to have that decompression period back into society,’’ Brandes explained. “This is my attempt to stabilize individuals in that regard.”

In an effort to create an organized public advocate for the prison system, SB 1208 creates a new Correctional Oversight Council, a nine-member board of volunteers who would evaluate adult prisons and DJJ detention facilities, conduct announced and unannounced inspections and identify problem facilities.

The goal is to create experts who “understand at a deeper level and report that back up,’’ Brandes said.

Under SB 1220, officers who interrogate inmates after an adverse incident would have to have the interview recorded with video or audio equipment.

“It’s 2018 and it’s my belief we should videotape or audiotape certain custodial interrogations,’’ Brandes said.

This “basket of policies will hopefully change the trajectory” of the agency, he said.

These are not the only criminal justice proposals under consideration.

Sen. Randolph Bracy, D-Orlando, the chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, has proposed reducing the age of felons who can be sentenced as adults. Under his bill, SB 936, the age at which a child can be prosecuted as an adult would increase from 14 or 15 to 16 or 17 and it would also limits the offenses that qualify a child to be prosecuted as an adult. The measure has not yet had a hearing.

This story was originally published January 17, 2018 at 3:05 PM with the headline "Fight Club: Senate seeks fix after Miami Herald series documenting juvenile justice deaths, abuses."