PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — WPTV got an inside look at the juvenile justice system through the eyes of a Boynton Beach man who recounted his experiences at a high-risk juvenile facility nearly seven years ago.
The path to the present moment and the future has never been brighter for Lashawn Montal.
“I feel like I’m holding and carrying this torch. That’s a wonderful torch to carry,” he said.
However, his vision wasn’t always this clear.
“We grew up hard, very hard,” he said. “Lights off, lacking food, lacking proper clothing, sometimes lacking shelter.”
At the age of 16, Montal faced adult charges for a robbery with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment.
“It was terrible. I got arrested for that, got direct filed, charged as an adult,” he said. “My first charge ever.”
Montal's court records show he was found guilty as a juvenile. Those records and sentences are not public, but Montal said he was sentenced to a nine to 12-month program at the Palm Beach Youth Academy, formerly known as Palm Beach Juvenile Correctional Facility.
“These kids are being housed with other juveniles, like myself, that are violent second-degree, first-degree felonious offenders,” he said.
The facility is described as a high-risk residential treatment facility for young male adolescents ages 15 to 21.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is, even if you file adult charges against a juvenile, the judge can still impose juvenile sanctions,” Dave Aronberg said.
Palm Beach State Attorney Aronberg said his office tightened parameters for charging juveniles as adults, but violent crimes with a gun are looked at differently.
“At some point when you’re old enough, like a 17-year-old who uses a gun in a carjacking,” Aronberg said, “the juvenile system is probably not capable of handling the situation.”
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice said the system is designed to rehabilitate offenders through supervision, counseling, and treatment.
Montal described the environment as incentivizing, he feels it was in no way a punishment to fit his crimes.
“It was very home like, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said, “but in a sense there was no sacrifice being made on behalf of the youth.”
It was outside mentorship brought to the facility, he said, that changed his course. Specifically, Ricky Aiken’s Innercity Innovators.
“Man, I ran with it. I saw a lot of myself in Ricky and what I could be going forward.
Nearly seven years later, Montal teaches financial literacy to young men. He’s a hope dealer with Inner City Innovators, leading by example in his inspirational podcasts.
“I knew I wanted to be better,” he said.
Now bearing the responsibility, he said, to be that beacon of light and hope for others.
“For the next generation going forward, I am going to continue to deal hope,” he said, “and do everything I can to make sure they never ever have to experience some of the cycles that me, Ricky, and some of the other phenomenal men I deal with had to experience.”
