WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Ian Manuel, sentenced to life in prison in 1991 for attempted murder in a downtown Tampa botched robbery at 14 years old, is now sharing his story as an adult.
WATCH: Florida children sentenced to prison as adults, now advocating against the use of solitary confinement
Manuel is advocating against solitary confinement, where he says he spent 18 years within the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC).
“I’ll never forget when I stood before the judge, after my mother had begged for my life, and the judge looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Manuel, there was a statement made earlier today in this courtroom about giving you a second chance. However, sometimes there are no second chances. So for the crime of attempted murder, I sentence you to life," Manuel said.
But Manuel did get a second chance 26 years later, after the Equal Justice Initiative took his case to the Supreme Court as part of its effort to end excessive punishment of children, which led to his release nearly nine years ago.
Manuel shot Debbie Baigrie in the face. She forgave Manuel and petitioned for his release, because of his age.
WATCH: Befriending Her Shooter
The ABC Action News I-Team recently traveled to West Palm Beach, where Manuel spoke at a conference addressing the needs of incarcerated people re-entering society. The I-Team also connected with a woman now living in Kansas, who was one of the first children to be sentenced as an adult in the United States to a Florida prison for murder. She shared the work she is doing to help other children in the system.
“I tapped into the depths of my imagination to survive," Manuel told the I-Team, of his years in confinement. "I started writing poetry and poetry sustained me.”
WATCH: Ian reciting a poem
In West Palm Beach, Manuel recited one of the first poems he wrote to a crowd of hundreds, called “Genie in a Bottle”.
“It’s about growing up in solitary confinement. And it says, ‘I’m the genie in the bottle the world has forgot. They put me in this abyss, and closed up the top. I was a little boy when they did what they did, but time continued to tick and I’m no longer a kid. My mother is dead and so is my father, I’ve been abandoned by family while trapped in this bottle. But I hold onto hope that someone will open the top, answer my prayers and help me out. Sometimes people pick up the bottle and put their eye to the hole, but instead of compassion, act indifferent and cold. I suffer sensory deprivation, a lost sense of direction, there’s no mirror in this bottle for me to see my reflection. They say being lonely and alone are two different definitions, but it’s only me in this bottle, so I fit both descriptions. What I need is a friend, someone to extend a hand, it could be as simple as picking up a pen. Someone who cares, accepts me for who I am. My magnetic personality and my baggage from the past. Someone who helps heal the sorrow, we’ll work on building our tomorrows. Someone who refuses to leave me to die in this bottle.’”
Manuel entered the Florida Department of Corrections on May 10, 1991, and told the I-Team he was first placed in solitary confinement because of his age. Then, because of what he called, "excessive disciplinary reports".
"It was just something that was very difficult for a child to have to experience," Manuel said. “It stunted my development.”
WATCH: Florida prison inmate dies after assault
Manuel spent 18 years in different levels of confinement and shared his story at the conference to a room that included employees from the Florida Department of Corrections.
“I’ve spoken all over the country and in the world, I spoke even in Geneva, Switzerland, at the United Nations, so I’m pretty well-experienced with speaking, but I’ve never spoken to a crowd with DOC officials in the audience. Particularly people who were in charge of my confinement," Manuel said.
Florida isolates children in both its adult and juvenile facilities. But instead of "solitary confinement", the Department of Corrections calls the practice "close management" and there are three different levels of restrictions. No one from FDC would do an interview, but instead, sent a statement, saying, close management "is used only when an inmate's behavior presents a clear threat to the safety of others or the orderly operations of the institution."
Florida State University's Juvenile Solitary Confinement Project, through public records requests, has estimated that on any given day, 26% of juveniles sentenced as adults are in confinement.
I-Team Series on Florida's state prison system | Crisis in Corrections
Marsha Levick, Co-Founder of Juvenile Law Center, the first nonprofit public interest law firm for children in the country, calls solitary confinement abusive.
“The easiest way for your viewers to understand what solitary confinement is like for children, is to think about it really as state-sanctioned and state-sponsored child abuse," Levick said.
The I-Team asked Levick what she would say to those who say these are children who made adult decisions when they committed these crimes.
“The first thing I would say is that's a ridiculous statement, because kids — they're not making adult decisions when they commit crimes. In fact, what we know about children who become involved in the justice system is that they are developmentally immature, that they are still developing, and that their ability to make smart decisions, not just any decision, but really good, good decisions about conduct that they engage in, is not fully developed," Levick said.
Catherine Jones, Co-Director of Outreach & Partnership Development for The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, helps adults who were sentenced as children "get the resources and the tools they need to adjust to a free society.”
FL Department of Corrections simulation shows the challenges people face when released from prison
Jones can speak to the challenges because she lived it.
At 13 years old, she and her 12-year-old brother were among the first juveniles in the country to be sentenced as adults, for the murder of their father's girlfriend, Nicole Speights.
“I never want it to be interpreted that when I talk about my experiences, the trauma, the abuse, the sexual abuse that happened to me when I was younger, that somehow that sounds like justification. Because, you know, the victim is the person who's no longer living. That didn't have an opportunity for a second chance or to thrive and to live. But the truth of the matter is, I was a 13-year-old girl that was sexually abused by a convicted sex offender that was allowed in my space," Jones told the I-Team.
That sex offender was a family member.
"The system did fail," Jones said. "Nothing was done about it."
Jones told the I-Team no one was stopping the abuse.
"So at that point, I felt like everybody is responsible for what's happening," she said. "All I knew was that I wanted it to be done, and I wanted to be out of that house.”
Jones said that is when she made the decision to do something about it.
"A decision that I deeply, deeply regret," Jones told the I-Team.
WATCH: Families seek answers about loved ones' deaths in Florida's state prisons
Jones went from that house to being housed in the Florida Department of Corrections for 16 years. She spent months at a time, she said, in solitary confinement, starting when she first entered the system.
“Solitary confinement was a version of what I feel would be hell on earth," Jones said, describing the extreme heat. "One of my first memories of that time was a lady next door to me hanging herself."
Jones said she got out of solitary confinement when a male guard sexually assaulted her.
"They told me if I wrote a statement, retracting what I said, saying I misunderstood what he did, that they would release me out of confinement," Jones said.
WATCH: Catherine Jones speaks more on juvenile solitary confinement
Both Jones and Manuel said they will continue to work to help others still trapped in the system.
"Instead of becoming a product of my environment and living as such, I used it to fuel me to now heal the system that was designed to break me," Jones said.
“I will never stop fighting for people to be treated in a humane way, particularly juveniles," Manuel said.
Full Statement from the Florida Department of Corrections
"The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) does not classify inmates as "juveniles."Rather, we identify them as youthful offenders and young adult offenders, both of whom are adjudicated and sentenced as adults. Please note, these individuals are not automatically placed in Close Management (CM), and age alone is not a determining factor for CM placement.
Close Management is a classification status—not solitary confinement or punitive isolation. FDC does not use solitary confinement, and most inmates in restrictive housing are not housed alone. CM is used only when an inmate’s behavior presents a clear threat to the safety of others or the orderly operation of the institution. Inmates in CM regularly interact with staff, including correctional officers, medical professionals, mental health counselors, chaplains, classification officers, and facility leadership. They retain access to personal property, reading materials, legal correspondence, and educational opportunities, and they receive routine outdoor exercise. Inmates at lower CM levels may also participate in work assignments and dayroom activities.
Placement in and progression through the CM levels (CMI, CMII, and CMIII) are based on an inmate’s behavior and institutional adjustment—not fixed timelines. There is no policy requiring an inmate to remain at a certain level for six months before advancing. Each case is reviewed frequently and thoroughly, in accordance with Florida Administrative Code 33-601.800."
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Full Statement from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice
"The Florida Department of Juvenile Justice does not use solitary confinement. The department does use behavioral confinement or controlled observation in our secure juvenile detention centers and residential commitment programs in limited situations, for a limited time, and never for punishment or discipline purposes.
Rule Chapter 63G-2 [flrules.org], Florida Administrative Code, defines behavioral confinement in juvenile detention centers as the following:
Behavioral confinement is an immediate, short-term, crisis management strategy for use during situations in which one or more youth’s behavior imminently and substantially threatens the physical safety of others or compromises security. Confinement may not be used to harass, embarrass, demean, or otherwise abuse a youth.
Rule Chapter 63E-7 [flrules.org], Florida Administrative Code, defines controlled observation in residential commitment programs as:
An immediate, short-term crisis management strategy to be used only when all other de-escalation strategies have been unsuccessful."
Florida bill would eliminate solitary confinement for juveniles in prison system
Three years in a row, efforts by state lawmakers to prohibit the Florida Department of Corrections from placing youth prisoners in solitary confinement failed. The most recent, in 2021.
