Please Help Find These Forgotten Girls Held at Male Juvenile Prison for Over a Year!
Welcome to the Sunshine State, where the palm trees sway, the alligators lurk, and the legislative process makes Kafka look like a life coach!
Florida House Bill HB21. Not just a compensation bill but possibly a 20 million dollar "Stay out of Jail Free" card for some folks.
This is a bill that does some good—but also trips over its
own shoelaces, falls down a staircase, and lands on a historical
oversight so big, it might as well have its own zip code! An oversight that overlooks what I consider to be its most vulnerable victims!
The Setup: Justice with a Catch
HB21 was enacted on July 1, 2024 to compensate victims of abuse from two male juvenile detention facilities located in Florida, Dozier and Okeechobee.
It says, “Hey, survivors of abuse between 1940 and 1975, here’s some compensation for the horrific things you endured!” Sounds good, right? Like a legislative Hallmark card—until you look at the fine print.....
Here’s the problem: HB21 cuts off eligibility in 1975. That’s two years before 25 to 30 young girls were inexplicably sent to the School for Boys in Okeechobee in 1977.
Yes, young girls. In an all-boys juvenile prison. How do I know??
I was there! I witnessed this! I am writing this story from memory!
Wait… Girls? Boys? Together?!
Let me get this straight: Someone thought, “We’ve got this facility full of 200 male offenders. You know what it’s missing? Teenage girls!”. Cue the sound of the world's largest facepalm!
The School for Girls in Ocala, Florida was opened in 1917 and in operation in 1977 and housed girls ages twelve to seventeen. Why a group was sent to Okeechobee is unknown, but it happened.
And don’t think this was some state-of-the-art facility. Nope. The girls dorm at Okeechobee wasn’t even built for girls. They just slapped some boards over the shower windows on one of the buildings and called it a day.
Problem solved! Who needs safety when you have plywood?
But Wait, It Gets Worse
This wasn’t a secret experiment in teenage cohabitation. A
freaking news crew showed up in 1977, cameras rolling!
Imagine the
footage: “Here’s the boys’ dorm. Here’s the girls’ dorm.
And over there? That’s the ‘No Fence.’” Yeah, you heard
me—no fence. (in '77 they had minimal fencing, mostly around the Solitary Unit)
Nothing says state-secured housing like trusting a 13-year-old not to run or try to escape when her “dorm” is 10 feet away from 200+ male inmates in the rural woods of 1977 Okeechobee, FL
HB21’s Math Problem
HB21 is like a reverse history book. It acknowledges abuse survivors—but only from 1940 to 1975.
Why? Because, apparently, justice has a cutoff date.
And being that the bill covers those incarcerated at two Florida-based Boys Schools.....apparently, justice
has gender cutoff as well.
Moving on, let’s do the math. If you were born in 1940 and incarcerated at, say, age 15, you’re now…(checks notes)…80+ years old!
How many
people from the 1940s are still here to claim this compensation?
Meanwhile, these 1977 survivors? Sorry, you’re two years too late. No justice for you. Enjoy being ignored in perpetuity!
The Real Question: How Did They Miss This?
Ask anyone who drafted HB21, “Hey, what about those girls sent to the boys’ prison in 1977?” and you’ll get blank stares, followed by, “Wait, WHAT?”
This isn’t just a case of “oops.” This is a monumental oversight that leaves a generation of victims behind. And the evidence isn’t hidden—it’s in state records, medical files, and yes, that 1977 news footage.
What’s Next?
Look, HB21’s creators probably meant well. But this isn’t a high school group project where you get an A for effort.
Lives were destroyed.
Families were torn apart.
And now, we’re telling these women—who might already feel too embarrassed or traumatized to come forward—that their suffering doesn’t count??!!
But here’s the thing: It does count. They count. It all counts!
Here the State admitted wrongdoing, injustice and ABUSE from 1940 to 1975!
Two years later they add young girls and you think wrongdoing, injustice and ABUSE were miraculously cured by then??!!
The admitted abuse by the State didn't even come to light until decades later...so why the cutoff of 1975??!!
Would including the girls lead to discovery of abuses that would cause far more money needed to compensate?
Or would it also lead to discovery of horrific abuses with no statute of limitations that surviving criminal actors possibly still alive and still working for the State would have to face?? .......Potentially both I assume.
Why haven't these Women come Forward?
If you were 14yo in 1977, today you would be in your 60s.
Maybe you married, moved ahead in life and now you are well known and respected by your family and community....would you want your family and friends to know about such a time in YOUR life??!!
These women don’t have to reveal themselves to demand justice. Their stories are written in the archives. Their courage is a matter of record. And its even on film! All we need to do is… create another damn bill!
The Insiders View...
I was 14yo at the time I was at the School for Boys in Okeechobee in 1977.
Convicted of being a "habitual truant" from Junior High school, I arrived February 18, 1977 for what was supposed to be 90 days.
But somehow within that 90 days, I managed to be transported on 3 separate occasions over 50 miles away to St Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, FL for head injuries and follow-ups and even had my middle finger on my left hand permanently disfigured just before I was due to be released.
I was then held past my release date on a "Medical Hold" as I was not allowed to be released until I was completely healed. I left on June 20, 1977.
Now...try and convince me that 30+ girls wrongfully (and possibly illegally) imprisoned in an all male detention facility somehow made it out without a scratch! I was only there for 4 months!
What would it take to find out where the girls I witnessed incarcerated in Okeechobee during my stay from Feb 1977 to Jun 1977 are at now and hear their stories!
Can someone find the news footage??!
Finding them and hearing their stories would probably bring the issue to a whole other level!
The women incarcerated in 1977 would be 60 to 65 years old now, PLEASE SHARE TO HELP FIND THESE WOMEN!!
The Takeaway
Florida, you’ve done a few of things wrong—like inventing the Florida Man meme—but you have a chance to get this one right.
Create another HB21. Include these women. Make their stories known, not forgotten!!!!
Because if we don’t, we’re not just failing them. We’re failing ourselves.\
Florida, We Know you have the List...I appear on it...My copy blurs out all other names and info, but my identifying info is correct....Which means you have their info too!!!
And to those young girls—now grandmothers—still waiting for justice: We see you... and we won’t stop until everyone else does too!!!
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