Florida Institute for Girls

Florida's 1^st Maximum-Risk Facility for Female Juvenile Offenders
PDF FILE ON FACILITY

Life here is nothing like that of a typical teenage girl. The girls are not typical either. They are 13- to 18-year-olds who have committed serious violent crimes like car-jacking, armed robbery, aggravated battery or manslaughter. Some have been in and out of juvenile delinquency programs for years.

As Florida’s first maximum-risk facility for female juvenile offenders, this program is a last opportunity to turn around their lives. If they don’t, they are likely to end up someday in adult prison. Some already have been tried in adult court, but were given a juvenile sanction.

Forget tight jeans and shiny fingernail polish. They wear shapeless navy-blue prison-style shirts and pants, no makeup, hair plain or pulled back and flip-flops.

Their room is a one-bed concrete block cell, adorned only with two pictures of their family. They can keep one approved paperback book at a time in the room.

Wake-up call is 5:30 a.m., school lasts five hours and there is up to two hours of reading time each weekday (book reports required). Many are behind academically or had dropped out, and they are expected to improve their education by at least one grade level every year.

There are no radios, CD players or TVs. Movies are shown on weekends but only as a privilege earned with good behavior. Good behavior means following therapy and treatment guidelines, and learning and obeying all the rules and structure. No cursing allowed. There are clean-up chores every day.

Only family can visit; no boyfriends allowed.

Girls who come here classified as maximum-risk are the most serious female offenders in Florida’s juvenile justice system and they will spend two to three years in the facility, depending upon their progress. If they do poorly, or violate the terms of their release, they may have to serve more time, up to age 21. The West Palm Beach facility also houses some girls designated as high-risk (or Level 8), who typically will spend 15 months here, again depending on their progress.

The curriculum is designed to meet the problems specific to girls in the juvenile justice system, including the fact that many have been victims themselves of sexual abuse. P.A.C.E. (Practical Academic and Cultural Education) Centers for Girls, which runs day programs for at-risk girls in Florida, helped train staff. The program focuses on building upon girls’ strengths and dealing with issues such as education, vocational training, sexual conduct, health, substance abuse, mental health, gangs, social skills, self-sufficiency, domestic violence and parenting. At least half a dozen girls already are parents; they are allowed supervised extra visitation time with their children and receive parenting training.

"We have a growing problem of serious delinquency among girls," says Florida Department of Juvenile Justice Secretary W.G. "Bill" Bankhead. "In the past, alternatives for girls who committed serious, violent crimes might have been marking time in an adult prison or hanging out on the streets after a short stay in a juvenile delinquency program. Instead, we are giving them a last opportunity to straighten out their lives."

"The girls here must go to class, they receive vocational training and there is time to talk about their mistakes and how to prevent them from happening again," Bankhead says. "We are not giving up on the girls here. This was not planned to be a place of failure."

The 100-bed facility, known as the Florida Institute for Girls, began taking girls in April. Ramsay Youth Services, Inc., operates, the facility under a $7.9 million contract with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. It costs $125.52 per day or $45,815 a year for each delinquent girl here.

Girls who do well earn a pair of sneakers after the first 30 days. Later in their stay, they can earn a polo shirt. The goal though is much higher: changing hardcore delinquent girls into young women with the skills to live a decent productive life and to raise their children well.

Because one out of four Florida delinquents is female, and because the number of girls involved in violent felonies has risen sharply from 1,400 in FY 1990-91 to 3,143 in FY 1998-99, the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice this year decided to open its first maximum-risk facility for girls. It is one of only a handful of such facilities in the United States, and may be the only one with specialized girls programming. The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice’s Girls Initiative has been a leader in providing programming and training to address the needs of girls.