Florida Senate - 2012 (NP) SB 46
By Senator Fasano
11-00099-12 201246__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act for the relief of the victims who were abused
3 while confined to the Florida Reform School for Boys
4 located in Marianna and Okeechobee; providing an
5 appropriation to compensate them for injuries and
6 damages sustained as result of the abuses perpetrated
7 by the personnel of the reform schools; providing a
8 limitation on the payment of fees and costs; providing
9 an effective date.
10
11 WHEREAS, during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, certain minors
12 were sent to the Florida School for Boys located in Marianna and
13 Okeechobee, Florida, and
14 WHEREAS, some of the boys who were sent to those reform
15 schools were severely physically and psychologically abused by
16 the personnel operating the reform schools in Marianna and
17 Okeechobee, and
18 WHEREAS, some of the boys who were physically,
19 psychologically, and sexually abused had been sent to the reform
20 school for “crimes” such as being truant from elementary school,
21 for running away from abusive homes, for running away from
22 foster homes, for being “incorrigible” in an orphanage, for
23 jumping a fence at a city swimming pool, or for smoking, and
24 WHEREAS, many of the boys were not given a trial prior to
25 being sent by the state to the reform schools, and
26 WHEREAS, more than 300 former students of the reform
27 schools have come forward alleging abuses during the 1940s,
28 1950s, and 1960s, and
29 WHEREAS, many beatings were inflicted in a building known
30 as the “White House” at the reform school in Marianna, and
31 WHEREAS, the boys were forced to lie face down on a blood-
32 and urine-stained cot, were told to bite a pillow covered with
33 blood, vomit, and bodily fluids, and
34 WHEREAS, the boys were struck repeatedly (as many as 100
35 strikes) on their buttocks and legs with a leather razor strap
36 that had a wooden handle, and
37 WHEREAS, such strikes were given with a full swing from
38 overhead and were given with such force that the strap
39 frequently cut into the boys’ skin, causing bleeding and
40 bruising, and
41 WHEREAS, such strikes frequently caused portions of
42 clothing to become embedded into the skin, requiring pieces of
43 their cotton underwear be extracted from the boys’ flesh, and
44 WHEREAS, school employees imposing the whippings would turn
45 on a large industrial fan to muffle the screams of the boys
46 being beaten, and
47 WHEREAS, the personnel of the reform schools who
48 perpetrated such beatings would make monetary bets on which of
49 them could draw blood first from the boys, and
50 WHEREAS, some victims needed medical treatment following
51 the beatings and were left with permanent scars, and
52 WHEREAS, some of the boys who were severely beaten were as
53 young as 10 years of age, and
54 WHEREAS, after being beaten, some boys were placed in
55 solitary confinement for as long as 30 days in an approximately
56 8-by-8-foot cell having no lights or windows, containing only a
57 bunk with a bare mattress, and a bucket to be used as a toilet,
58 which was known as the “hole,” and
59 WHEREAS, the boys were segregated at the reform schools
60 into white and black areas, and
61 WHEREAS, both races were subjected to beatings, and
62 WHEREAS, some of the beatings were given as punishment for
63 “violations,” such as eating an extra pancake at breakfast,
64 eating blueberries while running an errand, wearing buttons with
65 the wrong insignia on the jacket, lying about using a curse
66 word, having a “bad attitude,” or smiling at the wrong time, and
67 WHEREAS, on one occasion, a boy was tied between two trees
68 while he was repeatedly kicked in the groin, and
69 WHEREAS, some of the boys were simply pulled out of their
70 beds in the middle of the night for beatings or for sexual
71 assaults, and
72 WHEREAS, some of the boys were raped and otherwise
73 physically and sexually assaulted, including being forced by the
74 reform school personnel, supervisors, and cottage “fathers” to
75 perform oral sex, and
76 WHEREAS, beatings in the Okeechobee facility included
77 strikes with leather straps that had quarters or dimes embedded
78 in the leather to provide extra weight, and assaults using
79 “probing rods” that were made of wood and used for punishment by
80 sodomizing the boys, and
81 WHEREAS, boys were asked sexually inappropriate questions
82 by a school psychologist purportedly hired to counsel the boys,
83 and
84 WHEREAS, boys were sexually assaulted by a “school
85 psychologist,” and
86 WHEREAS, boys were sexually abused by school guards in an
87 underground room called the “rape room,” and
88 WHEREAS, the boys were threatened with their lives by the
89 reform school personnel and told not to tell others of these
90 abuses, and
91 WHEREAS, one of the reform school administrators who is
92 alleged to have beaten many of the children admitted under oath
93 that boys were punished by taking them to the “White House,” and
94 WHEREAS, this reform school administrator further admitted
95 under oath that personnel would tell these boys to lie face down
96 on a cot in an otherwise empty room and would have two or three
97 boys from the kitchen hold down the boy being punished, and
98 WHEREAS, the reform school administrator admitted under
99 oath that he hit the boys with a thick leather razor strap that
100 had a handle 8 to 10 times per infraction, that he at times
101 witnessed bruises on their buttocks afterward, that the director
102 of the school was always present during the “spankings,” that he
103 witnessed the director and another employee at times giving the
104 “spankings,” that boys could be given such punishment for
105 infractions such as smoking, talking about running away, or
106 having an “attitude problem,” and
107 WHEREAS, the national guidelines for training school and
108 juvenile agencies in the 1960s provided that corporal punishment
109 should not be tolerated in any form, including slapping,
110 spanking, paddling, belting, or any kind of abuse, and
111 WHEREAS, Arthur G. Dozier, a former school superintendent,
112 acknowledged the whippings in 1964 when Mr. Dozier stated to the
113 press that although he did not like the whippings, he would not
114 like to see the Legislature take away the right by completely
115 forbidding whipping, and
116 WHEREAS, the school in Marianna is currently named the
117 Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, and
118 WHEREAS, the reform schools were severely underfunded
119 causing overcrowding, and
120 WHEREAS, according to the national guidelines of the time,
121 Marianna housed more than five times the number of children
122 recommended for a state training school, and
123 WHEREAS, the underfunding also resulted in inadequate
124 supervision, and
125 WHEREAS, according to the national guidelines of the time,
126 Marianna employed an insufficient number of caseworkers, and
127 WHEREAS, according to the national guidelines of the time,
128 the Marianna school was understaffed in teachers, recreation
129 workers, and psychologists, and
130 WHEREAS, juvenile court judges who toured the school in
131 1969 stated that conditions were dismal, without adequate
132 facilities, without adequate staffing, and sexual perversion was
133 common, and
134 WHERREAS, one judge stated that he felt like a rat for
135 sending boys to that place, that by sending boys to the training
136 center they were doing damage as far as sexual problems were
137 concerned, and that eventually he would like to see the place
138 phased out, and
139 WHEREAS, Governor Claude Kirk toured the school in 1968 and
140 stated “If one of your kids were kept in such circumstances,
141 you’d be up there with rifles,” and
142 WHEREAS, Dr. Eugene Byrd, a psychologist and former staff
143 employee, testified in 1958 before the United States Senate that
144 the conditions and beatings of the boys that he witnessed
145 amounted to “brutality,” and
146 WHEREAS, a pattern of abuse at the reform schools has
147 existed for more than 100 years: in 1903, investigators found
148 children in shackles; in 1911, a report of a special joint
149 committee on the reform school stated that the inmates were at
150 times unnecessarily and brutally punished with a leather strap
151 fastened to a wooden handle; and in 1914, at least 10 children
152 died in a fire in the main building of the Marianna reform
153 school where it was reported that all fire-escape doors were
154 locked, and
155 WHEREAS, similar abuses occurred at the reform schools
156 located in Marianna and Okeechobee and were considered standard,
157 accepted practice and procedure for administering discipline at
158 the schools, and
159 WHEREAS, these children suffered severe physical and
160 psychological damages that have endured throughout their adult
161 lives, including, but not limited to: severe depression; post
162 traumatic stress disorder; persistent insomnia, including an
163 inability to sleep in the dark for many years; substance abuse;
164 phantom pain; relationship and economic hardships, including,
165 but not limited to, an inability to maintain personal
166 relationships causing multiple failed and broken marriages and
167 families; violence; prison time; suicide; lack of trust; and an
168 inability to maintain employment, NOW, THEREFORE,
169
170 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
171
172 Section 1. The sum of $ ...... is appropriated from the
173 General Revenue Fund to the Department of Juvenile Justice for
174 the relief of the victims who were abused while confined to the
175 Florida Reform School for Boys in Marianna and Okeechobee and
176 who sustained injuries and damages as a result of such abuses
177 perpetrated by the personnel of the reform schools.
178 Section 2. The Chief Financial Officer is directed to draw
179 a warrant in favor of the victims who were abused while confined
180 to the Florida Reform School for Boys in Marianna and Okeechobee
181 in the sum of $ ...... upon funds in the State Treasury, and the
182 Chief Financial Officer is directed to pay the same out of such
183 funds in the State Treasury.
184 Section 3. The Legislature is not deemed by this act to
185 have waived any defense of sovereign immunity or to have
186 increased the limits of liability on behalf of the state or any
187 person or entity subject to the provisions of s. 768.28, Florida
188 Statutes, or any other law.
189 Section 4. The amount awarded under this act is intended to
190 provide the sole compensation for all present and future claims
191 arising out of the factual situation described in this act which
192 resulted in injuries to the victims who were abused while
193 confined to the Florida Reform School for Boys in Marianna and
194 Okeechobee. The total amount paid for attorney’s fees, lobbying
195 fees, costs, and other similar expenses relating to this claim
196 may not exceed 25 percent of the amount awarded under this act.
197 Section 5. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.