Former juvenile inmates in Illinois file sexual abuse lawsuit

TODD ​​RICHMOND and Associated Press

29 mins ago

Dozens of other former juvenile inmates filed lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages for sexual abuse they allegedly suffered in Illinois prisons since the late 1990s.

Thirteen women and 95 men filed two separate lawsuits against the state Department of Corrections and the State Department of Juvenile Justice in the Illinois Court of Claims on Friday. Each plaintiff is seeking $2 million in damages, the maximum allowed by law.

The files are filled with disturbing allegations that guards, teachers and counselors at several juvenile detention centers across the state sexually abused inmates between 1997 and 2013. Often, the same perpetrators abused the same children for months, sometimes offering to shorten their sentences or give them snacks or more free time if they kept quiet, the charges say.

There was no immediate response Monday morning to an email seeking comment from two state agencies.

One plaintiff claimed she was 15 years old when she was placed in a Warrenville detention center in 2012. A guard groped her under her clothes and on another occasion attempted to rape her in the shower area. The guard said he would put her in solitary confinement if she told anyone. The woman further alleged that another guard sexually assaulted her in a bathroom and then gave her a Butterfinger candy bar.

A male plaintiff claimed he was 13 years old when he was placed in a St. Charles prison in 1997. Two guards gave him food, extra time outside his cell and extra television time as a reward for having sex with them, he claimed. When he reported the abuse, guards locked him in his cell as punishment, he said. The plaintiff said he was transferred to two other prisons in Warrenville and Valley View. There, too, guards groped him.

The lawsuits point out that a 2013 U.S. Department of Justice survey of incarcerated juveniles found that Illinois was among the top four states in the nation for sexual abuse in prisons.

Lawyers for the former juvenile inmates have filed similar lawsuits across the country.

Last month, they filed suit on behalf of 95 other former juvenile inmates who claim they were sexually abused in Illinois juvenile correctional facilities between 1997 and 2017. Each of those plaintiffs is also seeking $2 million. The state Department of Justice said in a statement on the lawsuit that these alleged incidents occurred under the direction of previous department heads. The current administration takes juvenile safety seriously and any allegations of staff misconduct are investigated by other agencies, including state police, the department said.

With the three lawsuits in Illinois, the total number of plaintiffs rises to over 200.

“It is time for the state of Illinois to take responsibility for the systematic sexual abuse of children in Illinois juvenile centers,” said Jerome Block, one of the former inmates’ attorneys.

Lawyers for the inmates also filed suit in Pennsylvania in May, alleging that 66 people, now adults, were abused by guards, nurses and supervisors in the state’s juvenile corrections system. The lawsuits in Illinois and Pennsylvania followed others in Maryland, Michigan and New York City.

In some cases there were trials or settlements, but arrests were rare.

In New Hampshire, more than 1,100 former residents of the state’s youth prison have filed lawsuits since 2020 alleging physical or sexual abuse spanning six decades. The first lawsuit went to trial last month, and a jury awarded the plaintiff $38 million, although the amount is still in dispute. Eleven former state employees have been arrested, and more than 100 others are named in the lawsuits.