I suspect it was not as bad as portrayed but I do recall one of my distant cousins having been sent there.
My Father who knew him fairly well said he was a good kid who got into some minor bit of trouble and they sent him to Dozier with the idea of straightening him out.
He came out a hardened, totally different person. He was a very talented singer and musician but ended up in prison for a lot of his life.
Sad about your distant cousin becoming hardened and ruined by his experience.
Friend of mine grew up in an orphanage in SW Florida many years ago. He had no idea who his parents were but one woman who may or may not have been his mother visited or did not visit him on weekends. The orphanage was not run by trained workers or even by compassionate people. Cruelty was the norm. Then when he was 10, she came and got him, brought him to the Keys, where she had just married a very nice man. Friend had terrible psychological scars that never left. He became a hugely successful extremely wealthy CEO. And a terminal alcoholic. Needless to say, his relationships with women were intensely love-hate, not easy for anyone involved.
Tragic. But at least he got out of the “institution,” and made a life for himself that some would consider enviable. Would he have had the strength to do that had the place he was raised tortured and murdered the boys? He was one tough sob but I don’t think he would have survived Dozier....or at best, he’d have ended up like your cousin. What a waste of a life.