Last month, the I-Team reported that the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice ended a five-year, $31.5 million contract with TrueCore Behavioral Solutions after a 15-year-old girl was found dead at Lake Academy in Tampa.
We are now digging into the company’s record and hearing from others who say the state should end all contracts to operate residential juvenile detention programs with TrueCore.
A video obtained by the I-Team shows how Lake Academy was left after the students, teachers, and staff moved out last month.
Mattresses covering the classroom floor weren’t supposed to be there.
The girls were supposed to be locked inside cinderblock cells with metal toilets and no sheets.
“I ended up with a concussion”
Former teachers we talked to said TrueCore employees often didn’t follow DJJ’s rules.
“There was a ratio requirement by the Department of Juvenile Justice of one adult to every five students,” said Barb Wishart-Harley, who taught at Lake Academy for a year.
She is an employee of Hillsborough County Public Schools, which had a contract to provide teachers at TrueCore facilities.