Watchdog details what led to years of abuse in juvenile detention centers in Illinois

CHICAGO (CBS) – A new A damning lawsuit accused state workers of sexually abusing 95 people when they were children and held in detention centers in Illinois.

CBS 2 spoke with several incarceration watchdog groups who said more should be done to allow the public access to disciplinary decisions and personnel records of staff at juvenile correctional facilities. They said a lack of access creates a cloud of secrecy over people who work directly with children.

“Today I am not alone,” said Calvin McDowell, a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. “Today I take my life back from the man who took advantage of me.”

McDowell expressed solidarity with other men who said they were sexually abused by staff while incarcerated at various youth centers in Illinois. He said he kept his secret from loved ones “out of fear and embarrassment” and that there were “nights when I wanted to give up on life.”

“I survived and continue to survive the emotional and sexual abuse I was subjected to as a child, in the very justice system that was supposed to help me correct myself,” said Stephan Lucas, another plaintiff.

McDowell and Lucas were among 95 people who sued the state of Illinois and the Department of Juvenile Justice. They claimed it was abuse between 1996 and 2017.

Jennifer Vollen-Katz is executive director of the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group that monitors prison conditions and the treatment of incarcerated people.

Several of the victims in the lawsuit said their abusers offered them food and other gifts.

“There is a culture of disadvantage in these facilities,” said Vollen-Katz. “Things on the inside shouldn’t be so terrible that this kind of incentive would entice a young person to get involved.”

The Final Five Campaign has worked with children in the juvenile system and is strongly opposed to the state’s juvenile centers.

“We have been working in the facilities for a few years and I believe there is sexual abuse, physical abuse and psychological abuse,” said Alicia Brown of The Final Five Campaign. “Young people are simply not capable of being children.”

The lawsuit alleges that the state of Illinois has had knowledge of such abuses for decades and yet has failed to protect its incarcerated youth from sexual abuse.

A Department of Justice study released in 2013 found that in Illinois, some of the most common cases of sexual abuse reported are in juvenile centers.

“Today I stand here as a survivor,” Lucas said.

When CBS 2 asked Gov. JB Pritzker about the lawsuit, he pointed out that the allegations came from a previous administration. Although nearly 100 people are involved in the lawsuit, lawyers said it is just the tip of the iceberg and more could follow.