Hundreds sue over alleged sexual abuse in Illinois juvenile detention centers

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children in Illinois juvenile detention centers, according to lawsuits filed Monday that are the latest in a series of complaints alleging decades of systematic sexual abuse of children.

Three lawsuits filed Monday detail abuses from 1996 to 2021, including rape, forced oral sex and beatings by correctional officers, nurses, kitchen staff, clergy and others.

“The State of Illinois has created a culture of sexual abuse in its Illinois juvenile facilities and allowed it to flourish unchecked,” a lawsuit says. In addition, Illinois has “overwhelmingly failed to investigate complaints, report abusive staff and protect juvenile inmates.”

In total, 667 people have claimed in lawsuits filed since May that they were sexually abused as children in state and Cook County juvenile facilities.

They are part of a wave of complaints with disturbing allegations in juvenile detention centers across the United States, including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York. Few cases have gone to trial or ended in settlements, and arrests have been rare.

Illinois stands out because of the magnitude of its problem.

“Of all the states in which we litigate, we have the highest and worst number of cases of employee sexual abuse in the country,” says Jerome Block, a New York-based lawyer whose firm filed the lawsuits in Illinois and several other states.

The complaints filed Monday, based on the testimony of 272 people, name several repeat offenders. Some have been convicted of sex crimes not related to the allegations in the lawsuits. At least one employee accused in a lawsuit filed Monday still works for the state, according to state records.

The lawsuit, which has the largest number of plaintiffs – 222 men and women, most of whom live in Illinois – describes abuse in nine state youth correctional facilities, five of which have since been closed. The reports, documented in more than 400 pages, are frighteningly similar.

Many said their abusers threatened them with beatings, solitary confinement, transfer to stricter facilities and longer prison sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given extra food, cigarettes and rewards such as the chance to play video games if they remained quiet.

Most perpetrators are only identified as the survivors remember them, for example through personal descriptions, first names or nicknames.

Several plaintiffs independently described sexual and physical abuse by a clergyman at a state facility in the Chicago suburb of St. Charles.

The chaplain isolated children – including in his church office, their rooms or the gymnasium – before forcing them to perform oral sex and other abuse, the lawsuit says. In one case, he told a teenager that “his friends 'wouldn't look at him the same way' if they knew about it.”

Most of the accusers are identified by their initials in the complaints, but some have spoken out publicly. A press conference with survivors was planned for Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which involves state entities, names the state, as well as the Illinois Department of Justice and Department of Juvenile Justice as defendants. Officials with state agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in the Illinois Court of Claims, seeks damages of approximately $2 million per plaintiff, the maximum allowed by law.

Another lawsuit involving a troubled Chicago juvenile detention center was filed in Cook County court and names the district.

It concerns the allegations of 50 men and women who were detained in the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. It is said that numerous cases of abuse occurred during unlawful strip searches.

According to the lawsuit, the children were only 11 years old at the time of the abuse. The suit seeks $100,000 in damages per plaintiff. Some of the 50 plaintiffs are seeking even more damages in a third lawsuit filed Monday in the Illinois Court of Claims.

The Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, where children are held pending trial, has struggled for years and has drawn calls for its closure. A 1999 class-action lawsuit alleged lack of medical care, filthy conditions, overcrowding, understaffing and excessive detention. In 2007, legislation stripped the county of its authority to run the center and transferred it to the Office of the Chief Judge.

One person said he was 15 when he was sexually abused almost every night during his 90-day stay.

“Cook County has been plagued by such abuse for decades, yet it failed to protect the juveniles incarcerated there from sexual abuse and to take the necessary steps to ensure such protection,” the lawsuit states. “In addition, it employed individuals who it knew, or should have known, would sexually abuse juveniles in its care and custody.”

Officials in the office of Chief Judge and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declined to comment Monday, citing pending litigation.

Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press