Latest news with #juveniledetention
CBS News
3 days ago
- CBS News
More than 900 people now allege abuse at Illinois, Cook County juvenile detention facilities
More than 900 people have now come forward charging they were sexually abused at state-operated Illinois youth centers and the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. Attorneys on Wednesday announced that 107 additional names have been added to a class-action lawsuit. They say their clients were sexually abused while underage during a timespan that crosses several decades — from 1995 to 2022. The victims have filed complaints against the state and county over how they've handled sexual abuse in their juvenile detention facilities. CBS News Chicago previously reported on hundreds of similar cases last year. Several survivors spoke out about childhood sexual, mental, and physical abuse on Wednesday. "From 1995 to 2022, these children — nearly all of them boys, many from the Black and brown and female communities — were preyed upon by state employees in government-run facilities," said attorney Kristen Feden. One plaintiff, a 39-year-old Central Illinois man named Charles Graves, said he was facing criminal charges at the age of 13 with no father figure present in his life, and no one in his corner, when he was abused by officers in juvenile detention. "They were only there for their own gain — the game of taking our innocence and manipulating our minds. With me never having known love or the security of family, the officers were able to bend my mind to their own will," Graves said. "I was sexually assaulted by three officers throughout my time in the juvenile correctional system in the state of Illinois." Another plaintiff, a 26-year-old Central Illinois woman named Kate-Lynn, broke down as she told her story. She said her father passed away when she was in juvenile detention, and was told she was being put on suicide watch. "At least five staff members came into my cell and stripped off all of my clothes. I remember a 300-pound male staff member sitting on top of my naked body, forcing me to lay on the ground," Kate-Lynn said. "Throughout the incident, he inappropriately touched me in placed I would rather not discuss in this setting. I was left bruised, naked shackled, handcuffed, and unable to move." Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a motion to dismiss the cases back in June, saying they were required to come forward before turning 19 years old. Survivors and attorneys say under the Illinois Childhood Sexual Abuse Act have unlimited time to bring lawsuits.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Survivors' lawyers say Illinois has one of nation's worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention
Illinois has one of the nation's worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday. Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys. 'The scale and the magnitude and the severity of these cases are some of the worst we've seen all over the United States,' Jerome Block, an attorney who has filed lawsuits nationwide, said at a news conference. The latest Illinois complaints, filed Tuesday, represent 107 people who experienced abuse as children at 10 centers statewide. Some have since closed. The lawsuits allege abuse from the mid-1990s to 2018, including rape, forced masturbation and beatings by chaplains, counselors, officers and kitchen supervisors. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as some who have filed lawsuits have done. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the lawsuits. Survivor Kate-Lynn, who appeared at a Chicago news conference, said she only felt comfortable speaking publicly using her first name. The Illinois woman, now 26, said she was held in solitary confinement at a suburban Chicago facility for a year when she was 14. She said she was sexually and physically abused by at least five staff members who came into her cell and stripped her naked. As she spoke, a fellow survivor who also planned to speak became overcome with emotion and left the room. He didn't return. Kate-Lynn said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. 'Going to public places is very hard for me,' she said, wiping tears at times. 'I feel like I 'm going to be attacked when dealing with authority figures." The lawsuits, first filed in May 2024, and they are slowly making their way through the courts. Two lawsuits against the state — representing 83 people — were filed in the Illinois Court of Claims and seek damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law. Separate lawsuits representing 24 people held as children at a Chicago center, were filed in Cook County and seek more than $100,000 per plaintiff. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who represents the state, has tried to dismiss the cases in court. Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, declined to comment Wednesday as did officials with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cook County. The lawsuits also name the state of Illinois and the Department of Corrections. Officials for the governor's office and Corrections did not return messages Wednesday. While the number of lawsuits grows, few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements. Arrests are infrequent. Many alleged offenders are not named in the lawsuits, represented by initials or physical descriptions as the plaintiffs remembered them. There are several alleged repeat offenders, including a corrections officer who currently serves as a small-town Illinois mayor and was accused separately by 15 people. He has denied the allegations. Attorneys have called for legislative hearings, outside monitors, victim input and criminal charges by local authorities. Block has also harshly criticized Illinois leaders, including Raoul, saying there is a double standard for the abuse victims juvenile detention centers versus church abuse victims. 'When it's the state who perpetrated the abuse, when it's state employees who perpetrated the abuse rather than Catholic priests, the attorney general doesn't want to support the survivors,' he said. Horrific accounts are detailed in the hundreds of pages of complaints. Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with violence, solitary confinement and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given fast food, candy, cigarettes or the chance to play videos games if they kept quiet. Another survivor, a 40-year-old Texas man identified in the lawsuit by the initials J.B. 2, said he was abused when he was 14 years old and staying a facility in St. Charles, which is outside Chicago. He issued a statement through attorneys. 'I want to let my fellow survivors know that we are not alone in this,' he wrote. 'Speaking your truth, no matter how gruesome it is, it can help to set you free from yourself and all the hurt that's been bottled up.'
Associated Press
3 days ago
- Associated Press
Survivors' lawyers say Illinois has one of nation's worst records on sex abuse in juvenile detention
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois has one of the nation's worst problems with child sex abuse at juvenile detention centers, attorneys representing more than 900 survivors who have filed lawsuits said Wednesday. Dozens of complaints, including several filed this week in Chicago, allege decades of systemic abuse of children by the employees of detention facilities. Similar lawsuits have popped up in states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, but Illinois stands out for the volume of cases that began piling up last year and the lackluster response from state leaders, according to attorneys. 'The scale and the magnitude and the severity of these cases are some of the worst we've seen all over the United States,' Jerome Block, an attorney who has filed lawsuits nationwide, said at a news conference. The latest Illinois complaints, filed Tuesday, represent 107 people who experienced abuse as children at 10 centers statewide. Some have since closed. The lawsuits allege abuse from the mid-1990s to 2018, including rape, forced masturbation and beatings by chaplains, counselors, officers and kitchen supervisors. The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as some who have filed lawsuits have done. Most plaintiffs are identified by initials in the lawsuits. Survivor Kate-Lynn, who appeared at a Chicago news conference, said she only felt comfortable speaking publicly using her first name. The Illinois woman, now 26, said she was held in solitary confinement at a suburban Chicago facility for a year when she was 14. She said she was sexually and physically abused by at least five staff members who came into her cell and stripped her naked. As she spoke, a fellow survivor who also planned to speak became overcome with emotion and left the room. He didn't return. Kate-Lynn said she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. 'Going to public places is very hard for me,' she said, wiping tears at times. 'I feel like I 'm going to be attacked when dealing with authority figures.' The lawsuits, first filed in May 2024, and they are slowly making their way through the courts. Two lawsuits against the state — representing 83 people — were filed in the Illinois Court of Claims and seek damages of roughly $2 million per plaintiff, the most allowed under law. Separate lawsuits representing 24 people held as children at a Chicago center, were filed in Cook County and seek more than $100,000 per plaintiff. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, who represents the state, has tried to dismiss the cases in court. Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, declined to comment Wednesday as did officials with the Department of Juvenile Justice and Cook County. The lawsuits also name the state of Illinois and the Department of Corrections. Officials for the governor's office and Corrections did not return messages Wednesday. While the number of lawsuits grows, few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements. Arrests are infrequent. Many alleged offenders are not named in the lawsuits, represented by initials or physical descriptions as the plaintiffs remembered them. There are several alleged repeat offenders, including a corrections officer who currently serves as a small-town Illinois mayor and was accused separately by 15 people. He has denied the allegations. Attorneys have called for legislative hearings, outside monitors, victim input and criminal charges by local authorities. Block has also harshly criticized Illinois leaders, including Raoul, saying there is a double standard for the abuse victims juvenile detention centers versus church abuse victims. 'When it's the state who perpetrated the abuse, when it's state employees who perpetrated the abuse rather than Catholic priests, the attorney general doesn't want to support the survivors,' he said. Horrific accounts are detailed in the hundreds of pages of complaints. Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with violence, solitary confinement and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given fast food, candy, cigarettes or the chance to play videos games if they kept quiet. Another survivor, a 40-year-old Texas man identified in the lawsuit by the initials J.B. 2, said he was abused when he was 14 years old and staying a facility in St. Charles, which is outside Chicago. He issued a statement through attorneys. 'I want to let my fellow survivors know that we are not alone in this,' he wrote. 'Speaking your truth, no matter how gruesome it is, it can help to set you free from yourself and all the hurt that's been bottled up.'
Associated Press
4 days ago
- Associated Press
Levy Konigsberg Attorneys Jerome Block, Jacob Jordan and Co-Counsel have filed lawsuits on behalf of more than 900 men and women who were allegedly sexually abused by staff members when they were confined as children at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center and Illinois Youth Centers throughout Illinois.
NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Levy Konigsberg and co-counsel filed lawsuits today on behalf of over 100 survivors of sexual abuse against Cook County and the State of Illinois, bringing the total number of cases to more than 900 dating back to May 2024. The lawsuits allege that Cook County and the State failed to protect children from rampant sexual abuse perpetrated by adult employees at juvenile detention facilities throughout the state. These lawsuits are the latest in a string of juvenile detention abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg along with its co-counsel across the State of Illinois and the United States. The suits filed by Levy Konigsberg were brought under the recently amended Childhood Sexual Abuse Act as codified at 735 ILCS 5/13-202.2. The Childhood Sexual Abuse Act provides legal pathways for victims of this type of sexual abuse to pursue damages from their abusers and from the institutions that enabled the abuse by increasing the time in which survivors of sexual abuse are permitted to come forward and file civil lawsuits. The Survivors who have filed clams so far include those who suffered sexual abuse as far back as the 1990s and up through recent years. The Plaintiffs, who are now adults, were sexually abused as children ranging from age 9 to 17. The perpetrators of the sexual abuse were supervisors, correctional officers, counselors, supervisors and other staff. In announcing Monday's lawsuits filed against the State of Illinois and Cook County, Levy Konigsberg Partner Jerome Block stated: 'After more than 900 victims of childhood sexual abuse have come forward, the ongoing apathy from Cook County and Attorney General Kwame Raoul speaks volumes and underscores a tragic lack of concern for Illinois youth in custody. More than one year after the filing of the first group of cases, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul recently filed a new motion to dismiss arguing that the survivors were required to come forward before turning age 19. The State's outrageous and callous legal position ignores the deep trauma of childhood sexual abuse and the rights granted by the Illinois Childhood Sexual Abuse Act.' Levy Konigsberg has filed more than a thousand lawsuits on behalf of survivors of sexual abuse nationwide and is at the forefront of litigation in New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and other states. Levy Konigsberg represents over 900 survivors of childhood sexual abuse at Illinois youth centers and plans to continue fighting tirelessly on their behalf. For additional information about Illinois youth center sex abuse lawsuits spearheaded by Levy Konigsberg, and its co-counsel, media members and journalists are encouraged to reach out to Attorney Jerome Block by using the law firm's contact form: Media Contact: Attorney Jerome Block; [email protected] View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Levy Konigsberg
CBS News
05-07-2025
- CBS News
Detroit Juvenile Detention Center employee accused of supplying teens with marijuana gummies
A Detroit Juvenile Detention Center employee is accused of giving four 17-year-old boys housed at the center marijuana gummies. Joseph Robinson, 22, of Detroit, is charged with four counts of furnishing a controlled substance (marijuana) to minors and four counts of furnishing contraband to prisoners. Wayne County prosecutors allege that Robinson, while working as a mentor at the facility on Wednesday night, gave gummies to the teens. Fellow employees allegedly noticed the four boys as being "lethargic, incoherent and in an impaired mental state," prosecutors say, and brought them to an area hospital. The teens were released later the same day. Robinson was arrested on Thursday after an investigation by detention center officials. "There is simply no excuse for the defendant's alleged behavior. It is especially reprehensible because the defendant was supposed to be a mentor to the young men housed at the JDF — and not a catalyst for criminal conduct. The result of his actions was the exact opposite of what this volunteer program was designed to be about," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy in a statement. Robinson is expected to be arraigned Saturday.
