The Florida Masochist

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Some Knuckleheads make you want to get ill. This is one of them. Today's winner is the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice. They get it for their colossal blundering involving the case of Robert a 15 year old mentally retarded boy. He was put into state care after his mother's death. At a Tallahassee juvenille center he was housed at the boy was sexually assualted by a 17 year old sex offender. One Dept employees assigned to care for the boy.

A monumental bureaucratic screw-up doesn't do justice to this case. What were these people thinking of? All parties responsible for this should be first fired and then prosecuted.

Open Post- Political Teen

Robert, an orphan with the mind of an infant, was not a typical inmate at the Tallahassee juvenile detention center. The 15-year-old teen wore diapers and played with blocks.

Guards at the lockup found a solution for Robert's care: They assigned Lee Donton, a teenage convicted sex offender, to bathe him, clothe him and change his diaper.

Within weeks, Robert had been sexually assaulted, according to Tallahassee police. Now Donton, 17, is in a Tallahassee jail facing rape charges. And the Department of Juvenile Justice is facing another scandal as the agency's inspector general investigates allegations officers turned a blind eye to Robert's plight.

The story of Robert, considered severely mentally retarded with an IQ of 32, is contained in a 10-page Department of Juvenile Justice report completed last week.

''Clearly, the system has failed this young man,'' said John Hall, statewide director of the Association for Retarded Citizens in Tallahassee. ``Shame on everybody involved.''

Robert's ordeal began in 2000 when his mother became terminally ill. By this summer, Robert had come into contact with officials at three state agencies -- the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children & Families and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

The juvenile justice report suggests officials at all three agencies blundered, failing repeatedly to find a suitable home for the teen, whose elderly grandmother and great-aunt were too frail to care for him.

`LITTLE VALUE'

Said state Rep. Gustavo A. ''Gus'' Barreiro, a Miami Republican: ``This young man does not have a voice of his own. . . . The No. 1 goal of the system is to protect kids coming into our programs. But we put so little value on a kid.''

Tom Denham, a spokesman for the juvenile justice agency, appeared to dispute his own agency's report Wednesday.

NOT POLICY

''It is not the department's policy to assign youth to take care of any other youth,'' he said.

``We are going to wait until the investigation is complete.''

Mattie Russ, Robert's 84-year-old great-aunt, said she received a phone call from an official she could not identify, but she still knows little of what happened to her nephew.

''They just said he got hurt and he's all right now,'' she said. ``They didn't tell us nothing.''
At 300 pounds, Robert has the size of a defensive lineman.

FOOD AS AMUSEMENT

For months, his public defender's social worker says, Robert's grandmother and aunt amused the youth by feeding him.

Though Robert attended a special school regularly, the report said he ``just sat in class. . . . He was unable to color or coordinate blocks.''

When his public defender's social worker, Victor Williams, visited Robert at his home, he typically found the boy watching cartoons or soap operas and playing with teddy bears and other stuffed animals.

After his mother's death on Feb. 2, 2004, Robert became increasingly aggressive toward his elderly grandmother and aunt.

He was charged four times between December and May with battery on a person 65 or older.
Disability officials told a Gadsden County judge twice, in May and June, they had no bed for Robert at a group home capable of caring for him.

ORDERED DETAINED

In May, a frustrated Judge William Gary ordered the youth detained indefinitely at the Tallahassee lockup, the report says.

A mental health counselor said Robert was entirely unable to care for himself, adding: ``His personal care needs are more than our staff are trained to provide.''

''Everything about [Robert] suggested he would be in jeopardy,'' said Nancy Daniels, the Tallahassee-based public defender.

At some point, the report says, Donton was given the responsibility for Robert's daily hygiene.

On June 16, a lockup supervisor, Tony Threatts, sent an e-mail to the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the facility raising alarms about the practice.

''I was made aware by one of my staff yesterday that youth Lee Donton, a sexual offender, is being allowed to shower and/or change [Robert's] diaper during the 7-3 shift and it was common practice and all staff, including the lieutenant, were aware of it,'' Threatts wrote.

``It was reported that the lieutenant was questioned by a staff member and the response was, `We have bigger things to worry about right now.'

''I want this out of my hands,'' Threatts wrote.

Williams, Robert's social worker, said he received private calls from guards at the lockup warning him that Robert ``was in trouble.''

He said he believes Robert was regularly assaulted over a period of months.

COMPLAINTS

On June 23, two lockup detainees, one identified in the Department of Juvenile Justice report as an ''alleged eyewitness,'' complained to Tracy Shelby, a therapist at the lockup, that Robert was being abused.

That same day, the allegations were reported to Tallahassee police and to the Department of Children & Families' child abuse hot line.

Police charged Donton with two counts of sexual battery almost a month later. He was booked into the Leon County Jail on Aug. 5.

The investigation proved difficult.

Although the detention center is equipped with video monitoring equipment throughout, the report says, police said some of the videotape they requested was missing, while other tapes were of ''very poor quality'' because they were being used over and over.

No way to welcome a soldier home

Read this column written by Ann Menendez in today's Miami Herald. No matter what your stance on the war, our fighting men and women deserve our support. Ms. Vitale served her country for two years and today she is suffering financial hardship for it.

The whole story angers me, I just wish I could help. What Ms. Menendez concludes with is absolutely true. This is no way to welcome a soldier home.

Open Post- Outside the Beltway and Indepundit

Poise, the kind acquired in 19 years of military service, is not something a soldier can easily abandon. So it was that Tuesday, before Doreen Vitale slid into a booth at the Gourmet Diner to begin her story, she first asked the server, very politely, to please wipe down the seat.

Minutes later, she couldn't stop her tears as she told how she lost her job, her gun and her badge after serving more than two years as a reservist in the war on terror. ''I was in shock. I served my country and then to suddenly be told I can't work because I was gone for two years . . . '' she said. ``It's hard to get past the hurt.''

Vitale returned from active duty in July. By now she should be back at her job as a security guard at the federal courthouse in Miami. She is not.

Vitale wasn't fired. She was just told she couldn't work until a new background check was completed.

SAVINGS DEPLETED

That was two months ago. Today she sits in her two-bedroom apartment in Pembroke Pines, her savings depleted. She just canceled her cable for a savings of $30 a month. She'd like to downsize to a one-bedroom apartment, but she can't: Landlords want to see a recent pay stub, and she doesn't have one.

Vitale worked for Akal Security, which supplies guards to the federal government. After two years serving in Fort Stewart, Ga., Vitale this summer returned to her job at the courthouse to hugs and cheers. Ten days later, a supervisor ordered her to turn in her badge and gun.

Vitale had simply become the victim of paperwork, says her employer.

''Our contract requires anyone who's been on leave for an extended period of time to have their background check renewed,'' said Daya Khalsa, senior vice president of the New Mexico-based company.

The U.S. marshals didn't return several phone calls late Tuesday. But Vitale says the marshals told her that they weren't the ones holding up the process; it was Akal. Akal insists there's nothing it can do.

''We regret whatever inconvenience she's going through but that is the rule the government sets and we are obligated to comply,'' Khalsa said, adding that he didn't know how much longer the process would take.

TRAGEDY

It's a tragedy of national proportion that we're losing our most courageous men and women to the battlefields of Iraq while at home, one of the government's biggest security contractors is paralyzed by paperwork.

Vitale wasn't off on a two-year vacation to Tahiti. She was serving her country at a military base. Vitale passed a background check when she first went to work for Akal. If a new check was needed, why wasn't that completed before Vitale returned to Miami? And if that last courtesy was too much to bear, why can't Akal at least continue to pay her salary until this mess is sorted out?

At first, Vitale trusted that everything would be OK. Shaken and humiliated, she went home . She first went to a mediator, but when that didn't work out, she finally found a lawyer and filed suit this month. Her case, if it's heard, may take her back to her old courthouse, where her colleagues wear yellow ribbons in her support. ''The law is on my side,'' she said wryly, ``but the law doesn't pay the bills.''

Akal Security, which also contracts with Homeland Security, is booming in uncertain times while Vitale continues to be diminished by forces beyond her control.

When she was called back into active duty two years ago, Vitale had to sell her townhouse in Pembroke Pines. She figured she'd buy another one when she returned. But as her deployment dragged on, the real estate market exploded. She returned to find her old home unaffordable.

Now even the rent on a two-bedroom apartment is slipping beyond her reach. And Vitale, for all her poise, is on the verge of tears.

A lot of people have profited from this war. Doreen Vitale was just doing her job, and then she lost it all. That's no way to welcome a soldier home.

When govt. isn't spending too much money....

They aren't spending the money they are supposed to. An audit of the Florida Dept. of Elder Affairs showed that 12 million dollars hadn't been spent while some seniors badly in need of medicaid waited two years. Don't you just love Florida? No its endemic of any govt. work. Government equals inefficency at best and monumental clusterfucks at worst.

Nearly 33,000 Florida seniors who likely qualify for Medicaid assistance have languished on waiting lists, while the state built up millions in surpluses of unspent money.

That's according to an audit of the state Department of Elder Affairs released Monday by state Auditor General Bill Monroe.

"We recommend that the department perform timely reassessments to ensure that clients are prioritized at the appropriate level and receive adequate and timely services based on their condition," said auditor Sabrina Ballew in the report.

The audit found problems in particular with two programs designed to keep seniors out of nursing homes by helping them while they live at home or in assisted-living facilities.

The programs provide a range of services, such as bathing, cleaning houses and providing pest control. The programs also provide caretakers to give family members some free time to do grocery shopping or attend to their own needs.

More than 6,000 seniors were backlogged in those two programs alone as of April, while budget surpluses topped $12.8 million. At least 64 of the seniors most in need of immediate services had been waiting more than two years, the audit disclosed.

Elder Affairs Secretary Carole Green, in an Oct. 10 letter to Monroe, said the department has made great strides since she took over in March. One of the problems, she said, was that the allocation of money was based on overall population for each of the state's 11 regions, rather than on the number of clients and potential clients.

"The department has taken aggressive measures to improve the aging network's ability to manage the budgets and wait lists," Green said.

The backlog included 130 people in the 14-county district covered by the Area Agency on Aging for North Florida, based in Tallahassee. Executive Director Janice Wise said her agency has no choice but to keep potential clients on waiting lists while it tries to get more money from the state.

The Tallahassee agency did receive more money in June, she said, and was able to start paring down the list. It takes time after the money arrives to determine seniors' eligibility, she said.

The agency doesn't process people on the waiting list too far in advance because it doesn't want to raise their hopes needlessly, she said.

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Goes to the management of Halifax Calderdale Royal Hospital. They want visitors to stop staring at babies in the maternity ward. It may disturb the newborns.

All newborns do is eat, sleep, cry, pee and poop. They also have a limited eyesight range. Did any of these bureaucrats ever raise a newborn or go to medical school? Apparently not. For being dumb and burdening staff and patients' families with more rules, the management of Calderdale Royal Hospital is today's Knucklehead of the day.

Hat tip- Don Surber
TGIF Special/Lunch/Open Post- Jo's Cafe, Basil's Blog, and Mudville Gazette

Nothing is more guaranteed to break the ice than the sight of a newborn baby.
But visitors to one hospital have been warned against cooing over the new arrivals - for fear of infringing their human right to privacy.

Managers at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax have asked visitors to the maternity wing not to stare into cots or question mothers about their labour.

Staff in one of the wards have put up a display of a doll in a cot with a message saying: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?"

But not all mothers are so keen to have the privacy of their child protected.

Lynsey Pearson, 26, who gave birth to her daughter Hannah four weeks ago, said: "This ludicrous idea is taking patient confidentiality to the extreme.

"If people did not ask me questions about my baby I would be offended.

"I am so proud of Hannah and I want to show her off and I would imagine all new mums feel that way.

"When I was in hospital even the cleaners asked me questions and touched her and cuddled her. Babies love attention and I think it is cruel to ask visitors and parents basically to ignore them."
'People can't resist cooing'

Debbie Lawson, a ward sister at the special care baby unit, said: "We know people have good intentions and most cannot resist cooing over new babies but we need to respect the child.

"Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me.

"We often get visitors wandering over to peer into cots but people sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket and that should not happen.

"Hopefully our message comes across loud and clear. The Government has set a benchmark that every patient has a right to privacy and dignity and we say that includes tiny babies as well.

"I can't imagine why any mother would complain about this. Most would be against strangers poking and prodding and asking questions."

The hospital held an "advice day" last week to promote the initiative. Cards were handed out to visitors headlined "Respect my baby", with a message underneath as written by a baby. "I am small and precious so treat me with privacy and respect," it said. "My parents ask you to treat my personal space with consideration. I deserve to be left undisturbed and protected against unwanted public view."

Hospital management tried to play down the initiative, insisting they were just "common sense" measures and not "firm rules".

Florida- The rules are different here Chapter III

Here is a story from today's Florida Times-Union.

$43,000 spent on inquiry of $15,000
Misspending found in wetlands work
By KEVIN TURNER, Nassau Neighbors staff writer

YULEE -- Nassau County spent $43,300 for a fact-finding committee to determine that $15,700 was misspent for wetlands work and mitigation, a county finance official said.

The committee found that the county used incorrect procedures to pay a subcontractor at the Nassau County Judicial Annex and paid two others for work that was not done.

The county spent $43,300 for court reporting, printing and staff costs while investigating the situation over four months, interim Administrative Director Cathy Lewis said.

The fact-finding group's investigation started when County Commissioner Marianne Marshall gave County Attorney Michael Mullin documents she collected during her own investigation. But Marshall said she wasn't expecting the breadth of the county's investigation, or its price.

"I think this was a very horrendous cost to the county," Marshall said. "The fact-finding should have been short, brief and to the point."

Almost all studies I think are a waste of taxpayer money. Politicians who want others to tell them what to do instead of deciding it on their own. If they can't make up their minds, get another line of work.

My opinion hasn't changed. A revolution is coming in this country one day, the people are going to grow tired of the waste and corruption in our government and rise up.

Brunch- Basil's Blog