Survivors' lawyers say Illinois has one of nation's worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention
Illinois has one of the nation’s worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers
Illinois has one of the nation’s worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday.
Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys.
“The scale and the magnitude and the severity of these cases are some of the worst we’ve seen all over the United States,” Jerome Block, an attorney who has filed lawsuits nationwide, said at a news conference.
The latest Illinois complaints, filed Tuesday, represent 107 people who experienced abuse as children at 10 centers statewide. Some have since closed. The lawsuits allege abuse from the mid-1990s to 2018, including rape, forced masturbation and beatings by chaplains, counselors, officers and kitchen supervisors.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as some who have filed lawsuits have done. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the lawsuits.
Survivor Kate-Lynn, who appeared at a Chicago news conference, said she only felt comfortable speaking publicly using her first name. The Illinois woman, now 26, said she was held in solitary confinement at a suburban Chicago facility for a year when she was 14. She said she was sexually and physically abused by at least five staff members who came into her cell and stripped her naked.
As she spoke, a fellow survivor who also planned to speak became overcome with emotion and left the room. He didn't return.
Kate-Lynn said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
“Going to public places is very hard for me,” she said, wiping tears at times. “I feel like I 'm going to be attacked when dealing with authority figures."
The lawsuits, first filed in May 2024, and they are slowly making their way through the courts.
Two lawsuits against the state — representing 83 people — were filed in the Illinois Court of Claims and seek damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law. Separate lawsuits representing 24 people held as children at a Chicago center, were filed in Cook County and seek more than $100,000 per plaintiff.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who represents the state, has tried to dismiss the cases in court.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/survivors-lawyers-illinois-nations-worst-records-sex-abuse-123815139