LEARWATER
- The juvenile boot camp in Pinellas County is closing.
It was set to undergo some changes in just a few days, for one
the name was changing from a boot camp to the Sheriff's Training and
Respect program, aka S.T.A.R.
The sign has already been changed and reads "S.T.A.R.", but the
doors are closed.
Other signs of the shutdown are also obvious, for one, a bus
pulled up today to take away 26 of the 34 youths attending the camp.
Staff members were also packing up and were seen carting their
items away.
Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats says, "Some of the youth have
already been transported. There's 8 youths left at the facility and
those 8 will be transported to other facilities in the next 24
hours."
Sheriff Coats announced plans of the shutdown to the Department
of Juvenile Justice this morning.
In a news conference this afternoon he explained why.
The sheriff says, "We were confident that we could make this
program work. Unfortunately, funding is an issue, and that was
basically a deal breaker."
Pinellas' program and others like it were set for a major
transformation in the coming days.
On July 1, they would become "S.T.A.R".
The changed was imposed by the state following the death of
Martin Lee Anderson at a boot camp earlier this year in the Florida
panhandle.
Sheriff Coats says they new program would cost more than
$1,000,000 to implement, money his office can't get without taxpayer
help.
C