ILLINOIS – In June 2023, the ACLU of Illinois 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 detained youth. The lawsuit detailed reports from detained children who described being confined to cells the size of parking spaces for 20 to 24 hours a day, with bright overhead fluorescent lights that never turned off. The children were also denied adequate schooling and necessary medical and mental health services for weeks, and in some cases, months.
As discovery was beginning in our lawsuit, the Defendants permanently closed the facility’s doors. This closure marked a significant victory in our fight for better conditions for detained youth. In August 2024, we voluntarily dismissed our complaint after Franklin County officials made clear that there are no plans to reopen the facility, and that they will continue to retain documents relating to the lawsuit.
The following can be attributed to Kevin Fee of the ACLU of Illinois:
We are pleased that youth no longer will be exposed to the horrible conditions at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center.
As we celebrate this development, we know that there are other youth facilities that subject children to harmful and unconstitutional conditions. Our recent lawsuit against the Mary Davis Home in Knox County makes that clear. We will continue our work to ensure that young people in Illinois are not subjected to long periods of solitary confinement and denied mental health treatment and other crucial services. The harms resulting from this treatment lasts for decades. None of us can look the other way while young people suffer the consequences.