Five officers from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice were recently arrested for allegedly falsifying records and bribing inmates at the Miami-Dade Regional Juvenile Detention Center to fight one another. According to the Miami Herald, the officers, some of whom were supervisors, had the inmates fight one another as a form of payback or as a source of entertainment.
The case was launched after 17-year-old Elord Revolte was beaten so badly by twenty other inmates that he later died from his injuries. Revolte's foster mother spoke to a reporter about officers bribing the inmates with honey buns, Skittles, and fast food to beat other detainees, and the reporter then questioned public defenders in Miami-Dade and Broward about the situation. The following day an assistant public defender confirmed the suspicions to Chief Assistant Miami-Dade Public Defender Marie Osborne after speaking to a group of detainees in lockup at the facility.
Osbourne explained the situation to the Miami Herald, "In here, a honey bun is like a million dollars. Sometimes it's Skittles. It's not always honey buns. Sometimes it's Snickers. If they really want a child hurt, and they really want to ensure a kid will do it, the big treat is any kind of fast food, like a cheeseburger."
Source: Complex/Miami Herald
