TAMPA, Fla. — A 17-year-old girl’s death late last month at a Florida Department of Juvenile Justice facility has led to multiple investigations and the transfer of girls living at that facility.
The I-Team has learned that the staff and the girls who were residing at the Lake Academy facility were given little notice before vans arrived to transport those residents to other juvenile detention facilities throughout the state.
The Lake Academy facility is a 40-bed program for 12- to 19-year-old females who have been convicted of crimes in the state of Florida.
A 17-year-old girl died at the facility on May 29th.
We received a heavily redacted report from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, which provided us with only the first page of the 20-page initial incident report.
The facility is operated by private contractor TruCore Behavioral Solutions, LLC.
Previously Lake Academy was operated by G4S.
The I-Team reported that the company lost the contract to operate all 23 youth detention facilities.
A riot was reported at the Lake Academy facility when it was operated by G4S in 2015.
The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice says the girls were moved out of the facility late last week "out of an abundance of caution".
The girls from Lake Academy will remain at those other facilities until the investigations by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the DJJ Department of Inspector General are completed.
We'll share the findings of those investigations once they are available.
If you have a story you’d like the I-Team to investigate, email us at adam@abcactionnews.com.
