CLAMOR CONTINUES TO CLOSE JUVENILE BOOT CAMPS

Tuesday, the Legislature's black caucus and Florida NAACP called for the state to close the remaining juvenile boot camps following the death of a 14 year old only hours after arriving at a facility in Panama City.

The Miami Herald and CNN filed a lawsuit on Monday to force the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to release a videotape allegedly showing guards beating Martin Lee Anderson after officers say he became uncooperative during intake at the boot camp run by the Bay County Sheriff's Department.

These developments raise the clamor regarding the operations ran by county sheriff's departments under contract with the state Department of Juvenile Justice. Anderson's tragic death was the third youth to die in a boot camp in as many years; all were black.

According to the Herald story last Thursday:

The video, which recorded the last 20 to 30 minutes of the teen's stay at the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot Camp, shows officers at times kicking, punching and choking Martin Lee Anderson after he refused, or was unable, to comply with officers' orders to run or do other exercises, the legislators said...

The state Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating Martin's death, showed the camp videotape to two members of the Florida House of Representatives who oversee youth corrections, and at least four members of the governor's staff at FDLE headquarters Wednesday morning.

Clearly shaken, state Rep. Gus Barreiro (R - Miami Beach) told The Miami Herald that the tape depicted ''the most heinous treatment of a human being'' he had ever seen.

"It was obvious to me the kid was unconscious, and they were still abusing him. People will be outraged when they see this tape, and they should be outraged."

One of the strongest worded opinion columns was published Sunday in the Herald by Fred Grimm:

Political power explains why boot camps thrive -- Florida's six camps are run by county sheriffs. ''They don't know the first thing about rehabilitation. But they know how to mess kids up in these boot camps,'' said Judge [Frank] Orlando (who runs a youth law think tank at Nova Southeastern University).

But sheriffs wield political clout. They managed, even while taking state operating funds, to keep their camps exempted from safeguards required for other juvenile lockups.