A Good Result

The guards at a juvenile boot camp videotaped kicking and punching a 14-year-old boy who later died had consistently used the same techniques on other youths, documents show. The five guards shown on the surveillance video were involved in at least 63 other instances using knee strikes, hammer-fist blows, 'pressure point' restraints and other physical encounters with detainees, according to Florida Department of Juvenile reports filed in 2004 and 2005.
Guard Patrick Garrett wrote the report on the Martin Lee Anderson case. He said Charles Enfinger and Joseph Walsh restrained the boy against a fence after he refused to run laps. "I ordered offender Anderson to stop resisting and relax his arms. When (he) refused to comply with those instructions, I applied a knee strike to his left thigh and escorted him to the ground," Garrett wrote. "After reaching the ground, I applied a bent wrist to offender Anderson's left wrist for approximately 7 seconds." The report of the 30-minute ordeal said guard Henry Dickens poured water on Anderson and later applied a 'pressure point' to his head. The technique was banned by the state in 2004. Garrett said the guards continued to "counsel" Anderson by applying knee strikes, pressure point blows and bending his wrists backward until he stopped responding. No guards have been arrested or fired.
"It's up to the Legislature if they want to close boot camps," Jeb Bush said. "This tragic case is something that we need to look at, investigate, prosecute if appropriate...but it doesn't mean that we should get rid of a policy that has yielded a good result."