G4S Arrests: Three former Department of Juvenile Justice employees arrested for multiple felonies

before we give you details let me tell you that traditionally we talk about the 30,000 foot view well today this may be the hundred thousand foot view because if I were to sit here and itemize everything that we've dealt with during this investigation we would be here all afternoon so I want you to understand that I believe in our democracy in our capitalistic society making a private business profitable is good for all of us however I also believe that we should never ever ever profit on the backs of our children and we know that the residential programs for the department of juvenile justice are entirely out sourced to for-profit companies so their primary duty and responsibility is it to look out for the best interest of the children or is it to make a profit I would suggest to you today after you hear what I have to say that these for-profit companies were not interested in our children they were not interested in the juveniles who were sent there by the state of Florida to receive programs and training and education and safe incarceration while they learned that there was a better way to live life what you'll find out is that they cut corners that they did not report they did not report the most heinous acts that were occurring to children and the reason they didn't do this in the words of one state of Florida employee was if they were transparent if they complied with a law if they complied with prea which is a federal requirement if they complied with DCs policies practices and laws then certainly Department of Juvenile Justice would not and could not renew their contracts for services and at the same time what I will give you today suggests that the Department of Juvenile Justice did not provide checks and balances and appropriate oversight for if they did they would have discovered what we discovered because the way we discover this information was from the people that worked there and from the victims and from the suspect children DJJ was more than amply warned of the g4s failures in g4s on these residential programs they were more than amply warned on several occasions and told to correct and in addition to being warned by us there was a grand jury presentment that they denied they defended they ran they high they hid rather than just admit that there's problems and we have to fix it so let's start from the beginning and see if you don't concur with my opening statements it's August the 17th 2013 there was a riot at the youth academy Highlands youth Academy which is outside of Avon Park but inside of corporate Polk County inside our county jurisdiction on that particular night we sent approximately 150 law enforcement officers there to get the situation back under control not only did I send deputies and supervisors and Highlands County sent deputies and supervisors and the Florida Highway Patrol sent their troopers to assist us we saw a riot there I personally went I saw a riot and at that time I stood behind this podium and I told each and every one of you that I saw a riot the next week then secretary Juan's Lea waters stood up and said there was no riot and she couldn't understand why the sheriff some deputies asked the guards the juvenile guards to leave the facility and leave the juveniles unsupervised are you kidding me she said that publicly when in fact what we found were the guards huddling in the corner the place being totally and utterly destroyed the estimation was about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars damages they came back and said oh there was only thirty five thousand dollars damage or some ridiculous number like that yet the place was uninhabitable once we quelled and calm the disturbance that night there were 60 youth or juveniles in the program that we discovered needed to be arrested and charged with rioting DJJ nor the contractor had the appropriate infrastructure in place to separate and house these wayward youth you see for if they had the infrastructure in place it would cut into the profit margin so we took the sixty youth that were charged and place them into a dorm separated by sight and sound at our county jail from all other inmate in order to appropriately give them a safe place where they could not only be arrested but where they were safe now you understand they didn't have the infrastructure to deal with the kids that were misbehaving yet g4s had a five-year forty million dollar contract to run that one facility so let's fast forward August but then they were in total denial that it even occurred even though we tried to work with their staff and said you have major problems here so now it's December 2014 an employee a guard a youth counselor whatever nomenclature you want to use drove 30 minutes from the Avon Park Highlands youth academy to our Frostproof station to report being battered by juvenile inmates in the Highlands youth academy and we go why are you showing up here now and they said well I am prohibited from calling law enforcement to report that I'm being beat up or battered while on duty they say they'd been normal win who's the facilitator of a facility administrator or you might think warden of the prison or the top person said nope no injuries to staff no report they had to show up on their own time in order to report that they were being beat on by the Jew inmates that's unbelievable Norma said well that's Department of Juvenile Justice policy well we checked into that and that wasn't the juvenile justice policy at all so we once again talked about the importance of reporting to us when criminal conduct occurred now we're to February 15th our February 2015 in March 2015 there is a juvenile inmate by the name of Charles spicy Bell he attempted to escape on two different occasions they never reported the escape attempt they called him Ida area well I guess that's accurate if you start climbing over the fence I guess you would be out of the area on his third attempt Charles spicy Bell on March the seventh was able to get away he fled but by DJJ policy they can wait up to two hours before they call us about an escape well they called Norma when Norma who is once again the warden of the facility when she arrives they can't find him they notify us four hours later and a mile away from the facility we arrest him keep in mind that was his third attempt so you go well why didn't they detaining but they don't have any place to detain him he was totally out of control and they had no infrastructure in March 2015 Norma was told specifically by more than one of our folks our supervisors listen you have got to comply with Florida State statues you have absolutely got to report criminal conduct and Norma said I'm following DJJ protocol she ignored us and went on with their practice all of this time we're working with our State Attorney's Office and in June of 2015 after receiving testimony our grand jury issued a scathing report of the Highlands youth academy and the protocols and processes that were occurring and let me highlight just a couple of those but we have the entire grand jury presentment for you quote the Highlands youth academy is a failure of the Department of Juvenile Justice mission as as an is septum Attic of a much larger problem in our state in quote quote the existence of the Highlands youth academy in its current state is a disgrace in quote quote the Highlands youth academy should cease to exist in quote quote Department of Juvenile Justice should require that its contractors put in place strong policies requiring that law enforcement be immediately contacted to investigate felony crimes taking place in their facilities in quote ladies and gentlemen instead of being concerned that a grand jury had to hear this instead of reacting to all of the warnings and all of the encouragement and all of the supervision recommendations that we gave them along the way while investigating this the Department of Juvenile Justice and g4s went along their merry way of denial cover-up conspiracy to deny not happening not us over exaggerated all of us and the grand jury were wrong and they were right and the Highlands youth academy continued to operate and it continued to operate in much the same manner that it had before despite all of our warnings and despite a grand jury presentation so November 2015 after all of that the Sheriff's Office received notification that there was sexual activity between the youth that were detained in the facility the juveniles the children as DJJ likes to call them and the staff members to include the guards or youth counselors or whatever the nomenclature is you want to use for those that's supervising that's correct we began the investigation of November 2015 despite the fact that we began the investigation into November 2015 and it wrapped up in November 2016 despite us giving them notice they kept the suspect right there supervising the juveniles in fact one of the same ones who this person was to have had sex with February 2016 there was a large disturbance at the facility once again resulting in the injury to a staff member that staff member had a leg injury had to go to the hospital sheriff's office was notified oh by the way during this period of time during this period of time after the grand jury presentation all of a sudden our calls dropped precipitously they quit calling us let me back up before November 2015 I missed 1 June 2015 employee that was battered by a by a guard if you will was battered by a juvenile who had a pacemaker and he was hit in the pacemaker directly had to check off of the clock and walk a quarter of a mile to the guard shack to call the Sheriff's Office because they still wouldn't allow him to report criminal conduct so after February 2016 now with the once again disturbance detectives asked for a video and the warden of the facility the as they call the administrator the number one person lied to the detectives said no video cover in that area we don't have any video videos broke take your pick of the excuses detectives through their investigation and from witnesses learn that yes there were video cameras and yes there were recordings but by the time we figured all of that out it had written over itself so Norma had effectively once again tampered with evidence and hindered our criminal investigation March 2016 Department of Juvenile Justice and DCF learned that a majority of the incidents that occurred there were never ever reported to them despite Florida law requiring reports Mesa May 2016 we wrapped up our case and we arrested Dedra baucom for two counts of sexual misconduct by an employee against the juvenile and smuggling contraband into the facility she has since pled guilty and is designated as a sexual offender oh by the way she confessed to us May 2016 Johnny Hart who's an assistant administrator is accused of slamming a juvenile on the ground the juvenile was injured and saying you're going to learn this is my program as he pummeled the juvenile September 2016 DCF became involved all along this way as we reported and several of the employees were suspended while their investigation unraveled April 2017 g4s sold all of their youth services in North America to be HSB Holdings for 56 point five million dollars this is big-time business big-time money and the children are an afterthought it was purchased by true core behavioral solutions August 2017 normal Winn who is now not a part of g4s was charged with and arrested in Highlands County on our warrants charged with three counts of destroying and tampering evidence two counts of failure to report child abuse and neglect three counts of use of public record to commit a felony one count of tampering and felony proceedings two counts of willful neglect a juvenile offenders and one count of false information to a law enforcement officer Jose Sanchez sent Sanchez was charged with two counts of destroying and tampering with evidence to counsel felon to report child abuse neglect two counts of use of public record to commit a felony to counsel willful neglect of a juvenile offender he is retired he was arrested in Highlands County our buddy Johnny Hart who was an assistant administrator was charged with one count of destroying and tampering evidence one count of child abuse two counts of use of public record to commit a felony to counsel willful neglect of juvenile offender this represents the top three people at the Highlands youth academy by the way Johnny was arrested in Okaloosa County because now he's the top guy in the program there ladies and gentlemen the allegations were in the hundreds the witnesses were in the dozens and dozens and dozens we balled all of that down with the State Attorney's Office and it took a very long time to what we thought was solid prosecutable cases there are many many many other cases that theoretically could have been brought but quite frankly we had to cut the investigation off and try to bring this thing to an end because new criminal allocation new criminal allegations were coming in faster than we could investigate them here's what I know prolific juvenile offenders have to be detained they have to go to a program or they're going to commit crimes in the community but when we arrest these juvenile offenders and we push hard to have them locked up in programs and we do our expectation is that they're going to be safe our expectation is that there's going to be organization and structure and discipline and they're gonna be taught right from wrong and how to go by the rules our expectation is that they're going to go to school that they're going to learn a trade because that's what we're paying these third-party people to do and I suggest to you that that's not occurring like we all think it is I'm not naive enough to think the Highlands youth academy is the only one that's run like this in the state of Florida I hope that is the only one that is run this poorly in the state of Florida my suggestion and it needs to start today this afternoon since DJJ doesn't pay any attention to a grand jury presentation nor to us since the private contractors didn't pay any attention to a grand jury presentation nor to us despite all of that warning in advance they continued on to now we have where the top staff is criminally charged with significant crimes I suggest there needs to be an independent monitor from the Office of Attorney General from FDLE from federal government someone needs to be on those campuses every day that can report directly around the hierarchy of DJJ directly to the governor and to directly to the governor not only to the governor of the state of Florida but to the people to make sure that they are following the law cause it's obvious they aren't and they don't have any intention to and they ignored us and it's obvious that the checks and balances were not and are not in place by the Department of Juvenile Justice because they totally ignored us after we shot many shots over the bow to include the grand jury presentation and private enterprise made millions and millions of dollars off of the state of Florida and the taxpayer while failing the juveniles they were supposed to be taken care of and that's all I got to say and I know yes ma'am do you know we wrestle with this case for a long time if further information comes to our attention and we can build a case with the approval of the State Attorney's Office yes but the more pressing issue is we've got to stop the bleeding and we've done everything we can at this level short of making arrests now we've made arrests and we made arrests along the way of juveniles who were committing felonies and it going unreported of staff members that were having sex with juveniles and it was going unreported but the bigger issue is we need independent oversight that reports directly to the governor directly to the cabinet directly to an independent federal source someone needs to make these folks follow the law the laws in place the laws very specific but when you look when you dig down and look the people we had that's supposed to be work with our children are required to have much much much much much less training than our detention deputies that are working with adults when in fact they should have more so then they pay just barely over minimum wage they just barely give them enough training to get them certified it's painfully obvious that there's no detail background polygraph psychological before these folks are put into this facility instead of a discipline parental relationship with these juveniles they got the guards the counselors dressed like them and in some of the videos we had a very difficult time because of the youth of the guards of the supervisors are telling who they was the inmate and who was the supervisor and the reality of it is I don't think they knew either I can tell you that we didn't receive the support from DJJ from the state or anyone else even after the presentment that it deserved everyone was silent so I'll tell you what's gonna make the difference the news media the watchdogs who need to say we need sunshine we need oversight we need someone else to be held accountable administratively we've not even touched administrative violations it is an absolute unequivocal train wreck and I am NOT suggesting for a minute that DJJ knew all that was going on because if they did I suspect they would have canceled the contract but if these private people had of reported them it would have shown their failures but you know what your bottom line looked good on the spreadsheets while they fail the kids there's some things you can't outsource and the responsibility to look out for the welfare and the best interests of those we incarcerate is the government's responsibility not private enterprise and that sounds parochial but I can tell you what when the government's responsible for it and the government has to adhere to the regulations it seems like there's a whole lot more adhering to the regulations then there is when there's profit at stake I don't think that was Johnny Hart but we did release a video of those that were fighting and and that was one of the videos where it was difficult to tell who who were the inmates Anu was supposed to be guarding the inmates by the who knows how many not only were they not reporting them they ignored us when we told them this is the rule this is the law make no mistake we don't need more laws we need the people to follow the ones that are there and the legislators who are allocating the money should be all over this those that want to get elected to the legislature and reelected to the legislature should be all over this those who want to be governor should be all over this we're all over it we've been screaming and hollering and jumping up and down and bringing criminal charges and stopping riots nobody pays attention come on people this is our children DJJ certainly has contract language it would allow them to step in and stop it but keep in mind when you turn your infrastructure over to private providers what do you do next private pro riders have all the labor they have all the infrastructure so you can't just overnight set up a state DJJ residential program it's going to take time I can tell you g4s is the taxpayer of the state of Florida all a rebate and they owe apologies to the kids who theoretically could have learned to trade and learn right from wrong and be a productive citizen well just the intensest of all that occurred in that environment it got to be survival of the fittest now that's a frightening thought when these parents who said my kids on the wrong track I'm so excited they're in a program we'll send them away they'll be disciplined they're gonna get the right training they're gonna get professional help that high me as a parent don't know and haven't been successful at only to throw them in that cage of non-reporting hiding sad I would prefer that they get oversight there now and I think once the appropriate oversight is there and the appropriate reporting to the cabinet directly the governor directly the Speaker of the House the president of the Senate directly I think from that point it will correct itself what we did is we took 60 of the kids in at no cost to them because they had no infrastructure and no way to deal with them they are they they were running paper thin so they can have a profit a bigger profit so they didn't have backup they didn't have other ways to deal with this major event that occurred so we stepped in and helped and we're still ready to help I want these kids that are creating havoc in the community to go away to a program where they're where they receive appropriate training appropriate education appropriate their therapy appropriate discipline I want that the community wants that and that's not what's happening today and if we could list all of the allegations you would go oh my gosh I cannot believe all of that

Channel: ABC Action News

Views: 452,265

Keywords: G4S Arrests, G4S Highlands Youth Academy, Department of Juvenile Justice, avon park riot, Terrorist Omar Mateen, huge riot in avon park, highlands county jail, sheriff grady judd

Id: 0QRuENqt3KE

Length: 35min 52sec (2152 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2017