Nearly two years since the Department of Juvenile Justice received a records request from the Florida Phoenix, it remains unfulfilled.
Despite fulfilling a nearly identical request in 2024 within three months, the department has not provided a reason for the nearly two-year delay on the follow-up request, or an estimated time it may be completed.
According to Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation, not returning public records requests is increasingly common, and is “not good for democracy.”
“The whole point of transparent government is to basically allow the public to participate and to see what decisions are being made in people’s names. And if you don’t, then this is no longer government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” Block told the Phoenix.
“It’s government for, of, and by politicians who act behind closed doors, and that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
The department fulfilled the Phoenix’s August 2024 records request for anonymized behavior reports. In a two-part series, drawing upon those records and interviews, the Phoenix reported that the department’s new school program enabled children in juvenile detention to watch porn on state-issued laptops and was running over budget by $10 million.
In October 2024, a month before the 2024 two-part series was published, the Phoenix requested behavior reports for August through October of that year.
The department acknowledged the request 12 minutes after receiving it. As of Friday, the request remained unfulfilled.
Another request made in February 2025, for behavior reports between October 2024 and February 2025, remains unfulfilled.
A March 23, 2026, Phoenix request for a statutorily mandated annual financial report also has not been returned.
Numerous follow-ups to the department’s communications director and general counsel seeking the status of the requests either went unanswered or yielded answers from the communications director such as, “Your request is still in process,” and, “I have no updates at this time.”
The department has not provided a reason for the nearly two-year delay.
Eric Hall, then-secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice, told the Legislature in March 2025 that the access to porn, among other technical problems, were “growing pains” for the department’s then year-old unified education delivery method.
In November 2025, the new secretary, Matt Walsh, told the Legislature the students’ access to porn on state-funded devices had been addressed with “immediate” attention and intervention from the department and the Florida Virtual School, a legislatively authorized online teaching center under contract to run education programs for DJJ centers statewide.
However, the department has yet to provide public records verifying those claims.
DJJ did not respond to requests for comment on this article.
’Once upon a time’
State law requires agencies to make records “open for personal inspection and copying by any person,” calling it a “duty” of agencies. The Florida Constitution gives “every person” the right to “inspect or copy any public record.”
“It doesn’t matter what purposes you want them for, it doesn’t matter what party you belong to, it doesn’t matter whether you believe in democracy or you believe in something else, you are entitled to public information, to public records in the state of Florida. And it’s just unfortunately not something that is being universally respected right now,” Block said.
“Once upon a time, the default setting was disclosure; the default setting now is to delay, to deny, or ignore.”
A Tampa Bay Times editor laid out that publication’s public records hang-ups, including exorbitant charges for records requests, writing that “hefty invoices and delays are also tactical, designed to dissuade citizens (and reporters in cash-strapped, busy newsrooms) from sticking with it and getting access to documents.”
A Tampa Bay Times story about insurance company profits sent a buzz around the Florida Capitol in 2025. The story focused on records that the state took two years to return to the Times reporter, delaying any chance of legislative action for at least that long.
In the “last decade, and definitely particularly under the DeSantis administration, they treat public records requests as an option — as not a right but a privilege they feel that they get to decide who gets,” Block said.
Government transparency “serves everybody,” Block said.
“I think politicians whose actions are open have a greater level of trust, and I think open government serves everybody, and I think access to public records is something that politicians should instinctively want to see,” he added.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
