|
Imprisoned since 13, an adult
Justin Caldwell remains walled in
April 28, 2007
By KATE McCARDELL / Floridan Staff Writer
When he closes his eyes, Mark
Caldwell sees his son when he was 2 years old, following his
father's grownup lawn mower with a little plastic version. His tiny
bare shoulders are deep-tanned and his hair bleached white by the
sun that he enjoyed playing under. "He loved the outdoors," said
Caldwell, "When the sun came up, he was outside playing. He grew up
in the country with me, and he practically grew up outdoors."
Caldwell said that back then, he
couldn't imagine what was to come 11 years down the road for his
only child.
He had no idea Justin Daniel
Caldwell would enter the juvenile justice system at age 13 and
remain there until he became an adult, watching his hair turn darker
shades of blonde and losing the sun-kissed glow on his face to five
long years of life on the inside.
"He was only supposed to be there
for 12 to 15 months. He was charged with larceny. He was only 13
years old, kids make mistakes and they learn from them. He doesn't
deserve this," said Caldwell.
There was no inkling in his mind
that Justin would miss holidays with family, his prom, and other
milestones toward adulthood ? replaced by nights spent in a small
bunk, daily inmate apparel and a relentless desire to be back in the
sun.
Despite the unexpected, Mark
Caldwell is not surprised that his son's name would have a hand in a
revitalization of the system at Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in
Marianna that, if successful, could change the futures of the young
men who are still hidden behind its walls.
The Incident
"They didn't expect us to fight
back. But I love my son, and I'll do whatever it takes to protect
him," said Caldwell, "I work 10 hours a day and when I get home, I
eat, shower, and then I get on the computer. I email, I search, I
talk to other parents in this situation. I'm hammering this hard. I
want my son out of there and I want him out now."
If you ask Mark or Justin Caldwell,
or even DJJ assistant secretary of residential services Rex Uberman,
it was more than just one incident that led to the firing of Dozier
employees and a vast 'rejuvenation' of a tarnished residential
juvenile detention program.
It was one particular incident last
February, however, that caught the attention of media and DJJ
officials and set off an investigation that would reveal what
Uberman calls clear indicators that there were issues at Dozier -
problems in day to day activities and functions of the program."
That incident occurred Feb. 11, in
the intensive supervision program room, where Justin and several
other young men were placed.
According to Caldwell's attorney,
Rick Reno, Justin was told to go to sleep, but was not tired, so, as
policy there allows, Justin opted to sit on the floor.
Surveillance footage of the
incident, released by DJJ Friday, April 27, shows Justin, other
youth and guards moving about the one-room cottage that holds bunk
beds, tables and chairs.
The time on the footage reveals
that the incident happened just minutes before 6 p.m., which was
confirmed by DJJ to be the correct time.
Reno said he hadn't noticed the
time on the footage and couldn't explain why Justin would be told to
go to sleep.
"They would not be putting them to
bed at 6 p.m.," said Uberman, "It's possible that the ISP was
getting crowded, and in order to gain some control, the guards told
them to lay down on the bunks."
What is clear on the footage is the
violent take-down Caldwell was subjected to by guard Alvin Speights.
The footage shows Caldwell standing
up, head slightly turned down, facing away from Speights, who
appears to be standing adjacent to Justin's right shoulder. There is
no sound with the footage and dialogue cannot be heard.
According to Reno, Justin was being
told by Speights repeatedly to stand up and sit down. After a few
minutes of this, it took Speights two seconds to slam Justin by his
throat to the floor, where Speights remained on top of Justin for
over a minute.
Reno said that during that minute,
Speights continued choking Justin. When Justin began to choke
Speights back, said Reno, another guard came over to help Speights
roll Justin onto his stomach and off the floor.
The footage then shows a Justin
being escorted to a table by the two guards. As he's being seated,
his head apparently slams into the table, opening up staples that
were on his head from a previous incident and causing Justin to
bleed heavily.
It's difficult to tell how Justin
hit his head on the table from the footage.
Previous statements from DJJ imply
that Justin became unconscious after he hit his head.
Reno, however, said Justin passed
out before he hit his head.
"After they picked him up, he was
telling them that he was sick and dizzy, that he didn't feel good,"
said Reno, "Then he passed out."
Justin was laid on the floor, where
several guards and nurses tended to his wound. He was escorted in a
van to the hospital 30 minutes later, said Reno.
Consequently, Speights was fired
from the facility this month, as well as John Tallon who, at the
time of the incident, was the superintendent.
"(The incident) shouldn't have
happened that way," said Uberman, who said he believes that Justin
did not do anything that would justify what he suffered that
evening.
"Speights clearly was operating out
of policy," said Uberman, "What he did can no way be condoned under
any circumstance, whether the youth was being verbally difficult to
deal with, etc. Our policy does not permit any employee to strike
out like that under any circumstance, and that's why he was fired."
While Justin has pressed charges
against Speights, the state attorney's office has not yet determined
whether or not Speights will be charged.
Hindsight
Uberman explained that young men at
the school are only taken to the ISP room after "every other attempt
to manage poor behavior hasn't been effective."
"I would say the whole sequence of
events of when Caldwell was injured in ISP did not show a good
policy or the best practice," said Uberman. "Looking back at that
incident, it makes no sense to put up a bunch of young men who were
having behavior problems together in one room."
He said that the practice of
corralling the men into a disciplinary cottage was counterproductive
because no counseling or intervention was done with them once they
were brought there.
A more productive approach, said
Uberman, will be in place soon.
"We're about three quarters of the
way done rewriting our new disciplinary policy for Dozier," said
Uberman, "I think we'll be able to roll out that new policy sometime
next week."
The newer approach to discipline,
said Uberman, should be more rehabilitative and less demoralizing,
keeping in mind that the young men who dwell at the school "will one
day return to the community and should feel like a part of it."
Evident on the video footage from
Feb. 11 is the detached demeanor of the young men who witnessed the
incident.
One man, for example, remained
seated at a nearby table where he was drawing. He would only glance
over his shoulder one or two times while Justin and Speights
struggled on the floor. None of the youth got involved.
"They feel defeated in there," said
Reno. "During that abuse, those other kids seemed like zombies. None
of them intervened or tried to stop it. Because these kids are
terrified to speak up. I think once these kids are in an environment
free from retaliation, they'll sing like canaries about what has
gone on there."
Released to jail
In contrast to Uberman's statement,
Reno said that the other young men in ISP that day were there not
because they misbehaved, but because they spoke out against abuse
that Justin incurred earlier that day.
"Earlier that day a guard punched
him where Justin had staples in his head from another incident,
which the school claims was self-induced ... just like his broken
arm from another time they say was self-induced," said Reno. "The
other guys who saw it and spoke up for Justin were punished and sent
to ISP."
The incident Reno spoke of, which
was not caught on tape, is the one that has landed Justin in an
adult correctional facility.
The guard pressed charges against
Justin three days after the incident took place, and, since Justin
had recently turned 18, he was taken to the Jackson County Jail.
"Now he's being held there without
bond," said Reno, "On charges of battery against a detention
facility staff. I think we have enough evidence from earlier that
morning when that guard attacked him to prove that their statements
can't be true. If Justin had really battered that officer, he
would've been taken to the jail 15 minutes after it happened because
they don't put up with that stuff. It didn't happen until three days
later because they wanted to cover up by arresting him. Once they
realized that they were caught on tape, they had to cover their
tracks."
Reno said that, unless the state
decides to drop charges against Justin, he'll continue to be jailed,
with a tentative trial date set for next fall. If he is found
guilty, he faces up to another five years incarcerated.
"Justin was going to be released
from Dozier this July. Why would he do something that would keep him
there? He wouldn't, and that's the red herring right there that
something's going on there," said Reno.
A father's frustration
When Justin was about 10, his
artwork was displayed in a museum exhibit.
"He's an artist and loves to draw -
people, faces, that sort of thing," said Mark Caldwell, "In fact,
he's doing a lot of that now at the jail."
His artistic inclination has Justin
dreaming of one day owning a shop where he would airbrush vehicles.
"He's also brought up that he wants
to mentor other boys," said Caldwell, "He said to me 'Dad, do you
think that when I get out of all of this I can come back and make
sure the other guys are okay?' He wants to mentor them. He said 'I
would be able to tell if everything's okay just by looking at them.
I'd know if they were scared or hiding something."
Caldwell said he hurts for his son,
but he knows that Justin's struggle has made him stronger. Still, he
said, he misses his only child.
 He
surrounds himself with photographs of his son, particularly one of
Justin at 12 - about a year before he was incarcerated - which he
carries in his wallet and on his toolbox, among other places.
"Once he got into the system, he
never had a chance. They haven't done anything to help him," said
Caldwell, who noted Justin was diagnosed with ADHD when he first
entered the juvenile justice system, a diagnosis he disagrees with.
"He's a good boy, a wonderful
person," said Caldwell, "He deserves to be free."
Caldwell said he approves of the
changes under way at Dozier and the efforts made by Uberman and
other DJJ officials, but that doesn't do much for Justin.
He wants justice for his son.
Part of that, he said, includes
seeing Speights sentenced to five years in prison for the Feb. 11
incident.
"Most of all, I want Justin home
and I want him home now," said Caldwell. "My son is by no means a
violent person. Of course, he wants to be treated with respect. And
when someone doesn't treat him with respect, he won't give it back.
That doesn't make him a criminal. He deserves to build a life for
himself, to have a chance to be somebody out in the real world."
|
