The scene I vividly remember is when the kids are playing dodgeball, and when the detention center bully turns to try and dodge the ball his face hits a concrete pillar and he breaks his nose and his face is bloody, and holding his hands up to his face he says, "I think I broke my nose". Also, I am pretty sure the main character is wrongfully accused of a theft at the beginning of the movie.

3 oclock high?

Bad Boys (1983)? - haven't seen this in many, many years so I can't speak to it whether it has that scene or something similar, but it is heavy on juvenile delinquents and a detention center.

The line "I think I broke my nose (or you broke my nose)" is used by Matt Dillion in My Bodyguard (1980) which is about delinquent teens but not a juvenile detention center. He holds his bloody hands up to his bloody face while saying the line.

Thanks for the quick replies. I am going to skim through Bad Boys again just to be sure, I remember the bully looks similar to the bully in Bad Boys (boom box blows up next to his head), but I am pretty sure it is not any of the movies mentioned. I'll IMDB that actor just in case it's him. The movie in question has the guy getting his nose broke by accidentally slamming his face into a pillar in the middle of the gym room/cafeteria trying to avoid getting hit by the dodgeball. So, in essence, he breaks his own nose. So the line is probably "I think I broke my nose"

Again, Thanks all. It's been bugging me since the late 80's :-)

Its not from Bad Boys. Clancy Brown is in it and his nose was broke when Sean Penn hit him in the face with a pillow case filled with full some soda cans in it.

I created an account here just to post in this thread, lol. I definitely remember this movie; it must have been shown on HBO. It's NOT "Bad Boys" with Sean Penn. Did you ever get the name of it???

The movie is about a kid who was wrongly sent to a juvenile rehabilitation facility. A person (I believe an older lady) is the victim of a burglary, and she sees the robber. The police arrest the wrong teen, and the woman picks him out of a lineup as the burglar.

The guy gets sent to "juvi", gets bullied and struggles to get by. The head of the institution is a middle-aged black man. I remember one scene in which he's yelling at the kid and he asks him what he did to get sent there. The kids says "nothing", to which the black guy replies, "I'm going to ask you again why you're here, and I don't want to hear 'nothing'!"

At the end of the movie, the police find the real criminal who looks very similar to the kid, and he gets released from the detention center.

I found it. Don't ask me how, but I found it (alright, remember Bernie Casey's face was the key). The title is "First Offender".

IMDB page: tt0150563

Youtube video: AMNF_Y3HD2M