Peterman, 45, is the ranking Democratic member on the House Committee on Juvenile Justice, a Baptist minister and former director of development for Juvenile Services Programs of St. Petersburg, a not-for-profit agency that contracts with DJJ.
He replaces Walt McNeil, the former Tallahassee chief of police who is also a Democrat. Crist appointed McNeil as juvenile justice secretary a year ago but last month made him secretary at the Department of Corrections. Peterman, like McNeil, is black.
''I think it's our duty not to look at Florida as Republicans or Democrats or independents, but as Floridians,'' Crist said Friday after celebrating a Black History Month event at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African-American Museum.
Woodson was the son of former slaves who worked to promote equal rights, diversity and social justice.
Peterman is the third Democrat Crist has tapped to head up an agency rocked by internal strife and controversy. In addition to McNeil, Crist last year appointed former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, to head the Department of Children & Families.
NEW MENTALITY
Children's advocates say DJJ, which was pummeled by legislators after the boot camp death of Martin Lee Anderson in Panama City, must shift from a ''lock 'em up'' mentality to a focus on prevention.
That was also the conclusion of a 57-page report by the Juvenile Justice Blueprint Committee, headed by Frank Brogan, the Florida Atlantic University president and former lieutenant governor.
The report, released this week, said that Florida locks up 90,000 teens a year, far exceeding the national average, and must move quickly to stop routing troubled teens to the juvenile justice system, but instead into treatment programs and residential homes. There, research says, they are more likely to learn to stay out of trouble, and the cost to the state would be a fraction of the cost of detention.
''The vision we have for the state is to try to make sure we continue the push for prevention programs but balance that with public safety,'' Peterman said. ``We've got to stop our children from being locked into the system once they're in, and we've got to find a way to keep our kids out of the system from the start.''
CHALLENGES
Peterman faces immediate challenges in the short term. The governor's budget recommends an $18.1 million cut to the agency budget; agency turnover has prompted the recent departure of several high-level staffers, and rumors are rampant that legislators are considering consolidating the agency with the Department of Corrections to help close the state's $300 million budget gap this year and a $2 billion revenue deficit next year.
With Crist at his side Friday, Peterman laid out three initiatives he hopes legislators will support:
• Spending $2.6 million to try to limit the growing number of girls who are entering the juvenile justice system.
• Spending $2 million to hire a registered nurse at each juvenile detention facility.
• Steering first-time offenders into community programs rather than detention facilities.
QUALIFIED SUPPORT
Roy Miller, president of the Children's Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy organization, said that the provider network and support community is encouraged at the prospect of Peterman's appointment because he is ``thoughtful and has experience.''
But if he fails to quickly embrace the reforms outlined in the Blueprint report, maintain the department's independence and fight to properly fund the agency, he will find it hard to keep that support.
Miller urged Peterman to ''get immediate assurances'' from the governor and legislative leaders ``that there's absolutely no plan to merge DJJ with DOC.''
Those assurances are needed, he said, because ``people are wondering if it is going to remain a child-focused agency or revert back to a corrections model that failed under Jeb Bush.''
Peterman also ''must immediately ask for more money,'' Miller said.
``If he's going to manage a wounded agency, his tenure will not be as effective as it otherwise would have been.''
LOW PROFILE
Peterman, a founder and pastor at the Rock of Jesus Missionary Baptist Church in St. Petersburg, was first elected to the Legislature in 2000 and has kept a relatively low profile.
He frequently took up causes such as protecting farmworkers from harmful pesticides, and one year gave up his seat on the powerful appropriations committee because it interfered with his pastoral duties.
Miami Herald staff writer Carol Marbin Miller and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
