State Reform School Looks To Have Been Murderous, Chamber Of Horrors For At-Risk Boys For 111 Years

Where there's smoke, there's fire. In this case, very odious and alarming smoke is figuratively rising from the grounds of a former state-run reform school in Marianna, Fla. where dozens of previously unknown graves are being discovered--some possibly with multiple bodies in them.

This smoke is rising from the potential inferno that's raging because many of these graves possibly belong to dozens of boys and young men imprisoned, abused and perhaps murdered at the school over the 111 years it was open from 1900-2011.

According to a report by M. Alex Johnson of NBC News (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/...), 19 previously unknown grave shafts were found recently on the school's grounds and other discoveries suggest there may be dozens of other boys--most likely African-American-- buried at the site.

Here's an excerpt from Johnson's story:

The prominent writer Roger Dean Kiser, author of "The White House Boys — An American Tragedy," about the horrors he experienced while incarcerated there in the 1950s as a child, has called the school a "concentration camp for little boys." He wrote that "a devil was hiding behind every tree, every building and even behind every blade of manicured grass."

They're called the White House Boys because much of the abuse occurred in an 11-room building on the school grounds known as the White House, where former students say they were beaten with leather straps. A group of the former students sued the state in 2010, but the case was dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired.

Previous investigations and records had reported that 31 boys were buried on school grounds, and that most of them died in a fire and an influenza outbreak at the school in the early 1900s. But researchers at the University of South Florida, in Tampa, say they now estimate there are at least 50 grave shafts in the area of the school's cemetery and the surrounding woods. Some graves may have been the final resting place for more than one boy, the researchers said in an interim report released Monday.

Records recovered and examined by the researchers indicate that at least 96 boys and two adults died at the school from 1914 to 1973. Most of boys who were committed to the school and died there were African-American.

According to the university report some of the graves might contain the bodies of more than one boy and there may be other secret grave sites on the grounds.  Here's more from Johnson's article:

And more chillingly, there may be other, secret graveyards somewhere on the grounds, given the number of still-unaccounted-for cases and the practice of segregating cemeteries during the first half of the last century, Erin Kimmerle, an assistant professor of anthropology at the university, said on a conference call with reporters. It's highly unlikely that white boys were buried with black boys during those decades, but as yet, the researchers haven't found a previously hidden whites-only cemetery.

"I didn't realize going in how much of a story of civil rights it was," Kimmerle said.

I'm not sure what the statute of limitations has to do with justice. Our Department of Justice must conduct a full, comprehensive investigation as soon as possible. It's NEVER too late for justice to be served.  This is a civil rights case that must be opened and investigated in the names of all the young men who were victimized by a system that didn't mind locking them away in what appears to have been a murderous, inhumane torture chamber for America's throwaways for over a century...with the final indignation of not even being given a proper burial.  

Whatever statue of limitations might apply in this case is unreasonable. Justice delayed is justice denied.  I'm going to contact the Department of Justice to ask them to take action on this case and hope you'll do the same.