For the first time in a decade, Florida juvenile detention and probation officers will see a bump in their salaries — an increase in the state budget that is part of a series of juvenile justice reforms passed by the Legislature this month. The 10 percent across-the-board pay raise for lockup and probation officers was…
ot smokers aren’t the only law breakers able to get a second chance in South Florida. Underage adults buying alcohol, those stealing property worth less than $300 and people nabbed for trespassing, loitering or disorderly conduct are also now eligible to get a break in Broward County. A new adult civil citation program is expected…
Rafael Olmeda Contact Reporter Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-public-defender-contests-fees-20180125-story.html Broward County is getting shortchanged on the fees that are supposed to be collected from criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire private lawyers, according to Public Defender Howard Finkelstein. He wants Clerk of Courts Brenda Forman to explain why. In a series of letters between their offices,…
Chaos broke out at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center when some of the inmates managed to take over the facility. 7’s Brian Entin has exclusive video of the riot in tonight’s 7 Investigates. This is where juveniles who get in trouble get locked up. And from the outside, it looks safe, secure and quiet. But…
Crime labs are overwhelmed and under-regulated – leading to the compromise of countless drug cases nationwide In separate incidents, just five months apart, two Massachusetts crime-lab chemists were arrested for tampering with evidence seized in drug arrests. At Boston’s Hinton State Laboratory, the state’s largest lab, Annie Dookhan falsified results by “dry-labbing”– submitting positive results…
The tickets for failing to cross in a crosswalk don’t just carry fines; they can damage credit rating and lead to the suspensions of driver’s licenses. A Florida Times-Union/ProPublica examination shows lots of them never should have been issued. by Topher Sanders, ProPublica, and Benjamin Conarck, The Florida Times-Union [Jacksonville]Dec. 20, 2017, 8 a.m. EST WALKING WHILE BLACK…
A group of Florida lawmakers, local officials and the NAACP made a surprise visit to the Broward Regional Juvenile Center, which some described as “horrific,” “subpar” and “unacceptable.” The officials were all in agreement: a new facility is needed. The detention center was the center of scrutiny following the revelation of violent conditions, such as…
We killed Elord Revolte. You, me, us Floridians. We knowingly consigned him to a juvie lockup hellhole run by thug guards with criminal records. We put him in a joint where guards commonly instigated gang beatings as a way to outsource discipline. Or maybe just to provide the night shift some cheap entertainment. They paid…
The lawmaker who oversees a powerful criminal justice committee said he will lead a much-needed reform of the state’s juvenile justice system in the wake of a Miami Herald series that detailed the existence of a mercenary system in which detainees are given honey buns and other treats as a reward for pounding other youths….
When juvenile justice administrators looked into allegations of sexual misconduct by a staffer and an intern at a Broward County youth program, efforts to hold them accountable hit an unexpected roadblock. Turns out that interns at AMIkids of Greater Fort Lauderdale didn’t have to sign any sort of agreement pledging not to have intimate relations…