The Dozier School for Boys

From the outside, the Dozier School for Boys in Florida looked utterly charming. Carefully manicured lawns and attractive plantings adorned walkways and drives. But the reality of life at Dozier was ugly.

In 2008, almost one hundred years after the reform school’s founding, Robert Straley and Roger Dean Kiser discovered they shared similar abusive experiences while students at Dozier. They recalled vicious punishments at a campus building called the white house, where staff used a leather strap to beat inmates. Straley was also raped at Dozier. In their shared grief and trauma, the two men reached out to filmmaker and civil rights activist Michael O’McCarthy. He too had experienced abuse at Dozier. He contacted Miami Herald journalist Carol Marbin Miller to tell their story. As the details went public, investigations into Dozier began. The State of Florida finally closed the school in 2011 and officially apologized to survivors in 2017.

A forensic investigation took place on the campus, including digging up its cemetery, since it was alleged that some boys had been killed at the school. Thus far, forensic anthropologist Dr. Erin Kimmerle and her team from the University of South Florida have uncovered over fifty sets of human remains. Yet none of the investigative or scientific work could prove any of the allegations. No perpetrators could be brought to justice. In the end, survivors and their families must live with the knowledge that justice may never be served. Follow this story of institutional abuse, the brave survivors who spoke their truth, and the scientists and others who brought it to light.