CHICAGO – A provisional agreement announced today will dramatically improve conditions and services for young people confined at state-run juvenile justice facilities across Illinois.  The settlement, reached in a federal class action suit filed today against the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice by youth represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, calls for the development of a specific remedial plan to fix inadequate conditions and services for youth, based on the investigation to be conducted by three independent court-appointed experts.  The Department has custody of about 1,000 youth who have been adjudicated delinquent by juvenile courts, and a legal duty to provide conditions and services adequate to rehabilitate these youth.

The provisional agreement, in the form of a court enforceable consent decree, was filed in federal district court in Chicago today.  The parties will ask the court to schedule a “fairness hearing,” and at that fairness hearing to enter and grant final approval to the class action consent decree.

“This is a starting point to providing adequate services and care, and fixing substandard conditions, at our state juvenile justice facilities,” said Adam Schwartz, senior staff counsel at the ACLU of Illinois.  “We look forward to working with the Department of Juvenile Justice to ensure that the problems facing Illinois youth will be addressed and corrected.”

The ACLU of Illinois has surveyed all of the Department’s youth centers, and interviewed scores of young people confined there.  This investigation found that the Department provides youth with inadequate services in a number of critical areas (including mental health care and education), and subjects them to dangerous and unlawful conditions (including excessive room confinement and violence).  Likewise, prior investigations by numerous outside experts found inadequacies in mental health care, education, and room confinement.  The ACLU’s complaint provides greater detail regarding these inadequate conditions and treatment.  After conducting this investigation, the ACLU filed administrative grievances on behalf of dozens of youth, and then pursued the negotiations that yielded the proposed decree.

“A root of all these problems is that the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice lacks sufficient funding and staff to provide adequate services and conditions to the large number of youth committed to the Department’s custody,” added Maja Eaton, a partner at Sidley Austin LLP who serves as the ACLU’s cooperating counsel in this case.  “As a result, young people do not get access to appropriate mental health care or educational services, and they are placed in danger by the lack of safety inside the facilities.  Given the Department’s duty to rehabilitate the young people committed to its custody, improvements must be made quickly.”

The consent decree between the State and the ACLU calls for developing a remedial plan, based on the investigation and opinions of independent court-appointed experts, to improve conditions in five areas: (1) mental health services; (2) educational services – including general education, special education, and services for youth with a high school diploma or a GED; (3) the use of room confinement; (4) safety of young people inside the facilities from violence by staff and other youth; and (5) continued commitment of youth beyond their release dates solely for lack of a community placement.  Under the agreement, the experts will review conditions in the eight juvenile justice facilities and file a report with the court 180 days after the decree is approved.   Then the parties and the experts will prepare a plan for the court’s approval.  The plan will ultimately be implemented by the Department, and monitored by the court-appointed experts and the ACLU.

The ACLU of Illinois is being assisted in this matter by Maja Eaton, Kevin Fee, Jr., and Joseph Dosch of the Chicago office of Sidley Austin LLP.

Illinois State Senator Heather Steans and Representative Camille Lily wrote a joint op-ed in today's Chicago Sun-Times which made an important connection: U.S. Representative Todd Akin's recent comments about rape highlights the need to improve sexual health education curricula across the country, and in Illinois. The ACLU of Illinois is a member of a coaltion of organizations that worked with Senator Steans and Representative Lily to pass a piece of legislation - HB 3027 -  that would modernize sex ed in Illinois public schools. The bill passed in the Senate, but failed to get enough votes to pass in the House. The bill is expected to be re-introduced in the next legislative session.

Rep. Akin’s misinformed comments launched anew that seemingly endless dialogue about women’s reproductive rights. We should not let that conversation blind us to the appalling lack of public education about reproductive health that his comments reveal. We can ensure that our young people at least have a base line of information about sexual health throughout life.

Read the whole thing.

 

The Chicago Reporter published an in-depth and heartbreaking article about how the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) responds to cases of child abuse and neglect, highlighting an alarming trend: many of the children end up dying before DCFS can investigate. Since the 90's, the ACLU of Illinois has kept a watchful eye on DCFS, as part of a consent decree to address high caseloads and to reform guidelines and practices.

Still, after nearly two decades, some terms of the consent decree have yet to be met, said Benjamin Wolf, the ACLU’s associate legal director in Illinois. The investigators’ caseload, for example, is supposed to get only up to 15 new cases per month, but each investigator still handles an average of more than 20 cases per month, Wolf said.

“You can’t do your job if you have these many cases,” Wolf said. “There is just no way you can adequately investigate each case.”

Read the whole thing.