OKEECHOBEE, Fla. — The state of Florida this summer turned the page on a dark chapter in its history.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill setting aside $20 million to compensate the survivors of two state-run reform schools for boys.
One of those schools was here in South Florida.
WPTV's chief investigator Jamie Ostroff tracked down some of the boys who were sent to the reform school. Now in their 70s, these men described the horror at the Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee and what the money will mean for them.
The Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee was one of two state-run facilities where judges sent boys who committed crimes. It was opened in the 1950s after the other school, the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, became overcrowded.
James Harckom said he spent 72 days in solitary confinement during his time as a student at Okeechobee from 1967 to 1968.
Willie Brown, who served two stints at the school starting in 1964, recalls being punched if he violated one of the school's many rules. One time, he said, his dinner was withheld as punishment.
Three men who spoke with WPTV described brutal beatings with a leather strap.
"I can remember like it was yesterday," James Anderson, who attended the school in 1965 and 1966, said. "I remember the sound — that sound [of] leather [hitting] you — leather hits the flesh."
The men all said they endured the atrocities before their 18th birthdays. They were sent to Okeechobee by a judge after committing crimes, and in many ways found themselves worse off after leaving the school.
"They didn't come and drag me out of church," Anderson, who was sent to Okeechobee for stealing cars, quipped.
Anderson said he struggled with addiction for years after leaving Okeechobee.
"It's hard for me to believe that 60 years later I can still get emotional," Anderson said. "I've always denied — it doesn't affect me. And for some reason it does."
"Throughout my life, it's been like I haven't been able to get myself back — back as I should," said Brown, who can't remember the offense that first sent him there.
Allegations of abuse at the Okeechobee school started not long after the facility opened in 1955. The school was built to address overcrowding at Dozier, which had also been subject to claims of abuse since its founding in 1900.
Those claims weren't investigated by the state until 2008.
In its final report, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said it found "no tangible physical evidence ... to either support or refute the allegations" at the Dozier School.
One year after that report was published, the U.S. Department of Justice said it did find evidence of harmful practices.
The Dozier school closed in 2011. The state cited budget concerns.
Soon after, an excavation team found 55 unmarked graves there.
Okeechobee hasn't been investigated as thoroughly, but the Okeechobee County Sheriff's Office searched the area with cadaver dogs in 2015. They did not find any human remains.
That school closed in 2020.
While state officials have apologized to some of the survivors, this year marks the first time the state of Florida is officially acknowledging the trauma these men said they suffered at the hands of the state, by compensating them.
Boys who attended the Dozier or Okeechobee schools between 1940 and 1975 are eligible for compensation from the fund. However, the grown boys who spoke with WPTV are skeptical that the money will make them whole.
"By this time, everybody who's responsible is no longer alive," Brown said.
"It's not going to pay for what I went through there," Harckom said. "It's an acknowledgment that something happened there, that shouldn't have been happening, and it caused a lot of harm and damage to individuals."
Eligible victims have until the end of the year to file a compensation claim. Click here for information on the compensation program.
