The White House

In its original mandate within Florida state statutes, the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was to act as “not simply a place of correction, but a reform school, where the young offender of the law, separated from vicious associates, may receive careful physical, intellectual and moral training." The boys were to to be restored as honorable citizens that contribute to society.

But that mandate quickly proved false for the school’s inmates. Rather than a place for rehabilitation, the school became a site of horrific abuse. Between 1903 and 1913, write the USF team, a series of investigations found some of the school’s children shackled in chains, denied food and clothing, hired out to other people to work, and beaten. The youngest were just five years old.