A Palm Beach grand jury has issued a scathing report of treatment of girls in Florida prisons:

With inadequate and virtually untrained staff and poor state oversight, a 100-bed prison for hard-to-manage delinquent girls became a nightmarish place where girls were injured and sexually abused, a Palm Beach County grand jury wrote Monday in the latest rebuke of Florida's juvenile justice system.

The Florida Institute for Girls, operated for the Department of Juvenile Justice by a private company called Premier Behavioral Solutions, was beset by violence. As staff struggled to cope with the violence, the treatment center became a dismal place where girls frequently were locked in their rooms and denied activities, exercise and even an education. Premier was paid $5 million per year by DJJ to run the treatment center....

The Palm Beach grand jury, which began its investigation of the program four months ago, heard testimony from 39 witnesses, including therapists, staff members, police officers and detainees. Grand jurors also reviewed more than 1,000 pages of records, including incident reports from the prison. The grand jury said the incidents were properly investigated by staff from DJJ, the state Department of Children & Families, and local police. However, the report said neither the private company nor DJJ took the necessary steps to correct the problems the reports identified.