Hundreds of individuals who claim they endured physical or sexual abuse at two state-operated reform institutions in Florida are on track to receive substantial financial restitution from the state. This follows a formal apology from Florida legislative officials for the horrific experiences these individuals faced as children over five decades ago.
During the peak of the Jim Crow era in the 1960s, approximately 500 boys were housed at what is now recognized as the Dozier School for Boys. Many were incarcerated for minor offenses, including petty theft, truancy, or running away from their homes. The institution also took in orphaned and abandoned children and remained operational for over a century.
In recent years, a significant number of men have come forward to share their harrowing accounts of severe beatings, sexual violence, unexplained deaths, and disappearances linked to the infamous school located in Marianna, in the Florida panhandle. Nearly 100 boys reportedly lost their lives there between 1900 and 1973, with some succumbing to gunshot injuries or blunt force trauma. While some deceased boys’ bodies were returned to their families, others were laid to rest in unmarked graves that researchers have only recently begun to uncover.
As the Dec. 31 application deadline approaches, the state of Florida has received over 800 requests for restitution from former attendees of the Dozier School and its counterpart in Okeechobee. These applications provide testimony regarding the mental, physical, and sexual abuse perpetrated by staff members. Last year, legislators allocated $20 million to be evenly distributed among the surviving victims of these schools.
Bryant Middleton, one of the survivors, publicly addressed the issue in 2017 when lawmakers officially recognized the abuse. He recounted the physical punishment he endured at Dozier between 1959 and 1961, illustrating it through personal anecdotes, such as being beaten multiple times for minor infractions like picking blackberries off a fence and mispronouncing a teacher’s name.
Middleton reflected on his experiences, stating, “I’ve seen a lot in my lifetime. A lot of brutality, a lot of horror, a lot of death.” He served over 20 years in the Army, including combat duty in Vietnam, and added, “I would rather be sent back into the jungles of Vietnam than to spend one single day at the Florida School for Boys.”
Allegations of maltreatment at the Dozier School have persisted since its establishment in 1900, with accounts of children being restrained in chains. During a visit by then-Gov. Claude Kirk in 1968, he discovered the facility in disrepair, with leaking ceilings, holes in the walls, inadequate heating for winter months, and buckets used as makeshift toilets.
At that time, Kirk remarked, “If one of your kids were kept in such circumstances, you’d be up there with rifles.” The Florida government ultimately shut down Dozier in 2011 after a series of state and federal investigations, along with media reports, documented widespread abuse.
While the men who suffered at these institutions await their restitution, their perseverance is being celebrated in the newly released film “Nickel Boys.” This film is based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which draws parallels to the experiences at Dozier and aims to keep the victims’ stories alive for future generations.
