The Chicago Tribune is currently running (beginning December 3 and 4, 2014) a series of front-page stories exploring the cruelty and neglect children experience in some of the residential treatment centers in Illinois. Many of the children featured in the stories are placed in these residential treatment centers under a contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

The troubling and graphic details in the Tribune stories appear to have come as a surprise to the leadership at DCFS. The situation is not, however, a surprise to the ACLU of Illinois. We repeatedly have warned DCFS about the problems in these private residential treatment centers as part of our decades-long litigation designed to reform DCFS.

These facilities need persistent and independent oversight to make sure they provide safe conditions and adequate services to wards of the state. More fundamentally, as the ACLU long has advocated, Illinois must develop and fund a comprehensive, accessible community-based mental health care system, a system that identifies what a child needs, and then provides those services to the child in a home-based and community environment. The ACLU of Illinois is committed to making this community-based system a reality.

The sad Tribune series also points out the need for consistent, competent leadership for DCFS. Over the past 10 years, the Department has been a revolving door of Directors who have come and gone; some have even undone significant reforms that had been put in place to make life better for children in DCFS care.

The ACLU is calling on Governor-elect Rauner to prioritize the identification and recruitment of consistent, competent leadership for DCFS, leadership that will be a partner in creating the sort of community-based programs that will ensure that no child has to endure the nightmare situations described in the Tribune.

Read the Chicago Tribune series "Harsh Treatment."

The New York Times has an article about the case before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding a UPS employee who was placed on unpaid leave because she was pregnant. Peggy Young was denied accommodations that would have enabled her to work despite a heavy-lifting restriction recommended by her doctor. Young previously sued UPS for violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978--losing twice in district court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals which both affirmed UPS' "pregnancy-blind" policy. The ACLU of Illinois recently helped to draft and successfully pass legislation that requires employers in the state to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers. The case before the Supreme Court is expected to be heard this week.

The case, Young v. United Parcel Service, No. 12-1226, turns on the language of the pregnancy law. It requires employers to treat “women affected by pregnancy” the same as “other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work.”
There is no dispute that some UPS workers were offered accommodations. What the two sides disagree about is whether the law required Ms. Young to be treated the same way.

Read the entire article.
 

ACLU of Illinois Executive Director Colleen K. Connell appeared on WTTW's Chicago Tonight to discuss the issue of "net neutrality." In short, the discussion about net neutrality is a question about whether the Internet is going to remain a free and open place, a level playing field that operates without discrimination and bias. You can watch the entire segment below, and then share it on social media and continue the conversation:

%3Ciframe%20scrolling%3D%22no%22%20src%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fchicagotonight.wttw.com%2Fsites%2Fall%2Fmodules%2Fcoveapi%2Fcove_cache.php%3Ffilter_tp_media_object_id%3D2365371756%22%20style%3D%22width%3A640px%3B%20height%3A360px%3B%22%20allow%3D%22autoplay%22%3E%3C%2Fiframe%3E

Privacy statement. This embed will serve content from wttw.com.