In June 2023, we filed a class action lawsuit challenging the unconstitutional conditions at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center on behalf of a young person (known by his initials, L.S.) and a putative class of other youth detained at the facility. For many years, the Franklin County JDC detained hundreds of children as young as 11 years old from multiple counties across Southern Illinois. Our client – and other youth detained at the facility – describe being locked in cells the size of parking spaces for 20 to 24 hours a day, with bright, overhead fluorescent lights that never turn off. This prolonged isolation came with severe deprivations: children were not provided any meaningful mental health care or allowed to attend school. The facility’s education program, for example, consisted of children being given a series of worksheets to complete on their own with no feedback or instructional support.
Franklin County officials were warned that the conditions at the facility were harmful to youth and needed urgent remediation. In fact, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice conducted multiple audits and publicly declared in its report that the facility was “in crisis.”
As we were beginning discovery in our lawsuit, Franklin County officials permanently closed the Franklin County JDC’s doors. In August 2024, we voluntarily dismissed the case after all of the officials involved in Franklin County assured us that there are no plans to reopen the facility, and agreed to retain documents relating to the facility’s conditions.
