In June 2024, we filed a class action lawsuit challenging conditions at the Mary Davis Detention Home on behalf of two young people confined there, J.B.H. and A.M. The Mary Davis Detention Home (MDH) in Galesburg, Illinois detains youth from Northwestern Illinois as they await sentencing. The ACLU’s investigation, as well as a number of public audits and independent reviews of the facility, show that officials continue to use abusive, extended solitary confinement as a punishment for the young people detained at MDH.
The youth detained at MDH spend a majority of their time in solitary confinement. But the facility also imposes enhanced solitary confinement as a punishment, subjecting youth to a so-called “Special Group Status,” where they are placed on a 23-hour-a-day lockdown that often lasts weeks or months on end.
The practice of extended solitary confinement is well-known to cause lasting harm, especially to children who are still developing mentally and physically. But MDH officials confine young people in tiny concrete cells with fluorescent lights that remain lit at all times. They force youth on confinement status to eat alone, just a few steps away from the toilet they regularly use, and deprive them of meaningful human interaction.
MDH officials do not provide adequate mental health services to support the youth, many of whom have substantial mental health issues caused and compounded by their detention and isolation. The facility also fails to provide adequate education to the youth in its care.
MDH staff conduct invasive, facility-wide strip searches of youth – forcing them to strip completely naked in front of multiple staff, bend over, and perform jumping jacks. In one reported instance, a youth was held down while staff forcibly cut his clothes off with a knife.