CHICAGO -- More than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, according to lawsuits filed Monday, the latest in a string of complaints alleging decades of systemic child sex abuse.Three lawsuits filed Monday detail abuse from 1996 to 2021, including rape, forced oral sex and beatings by corrections officers, nurses, kitchen staff, chaplains and others.“The State of Illinois has caused and permitted a culture of sexual abuse to flourish unabated in its Illinois Youth Center facilities,” one lawsuit said, adding that Illinois has “overwhelmingly failed to investigate complaints, report abusive staff, and protect youth inmates.”Overall, 667 people have alleged they were sexually abused as children at youth facilities run by the state and Cook County in lawsuits filed since May.They’re part of a wave of complaints with disturbing allegations at juvenile facilities across the U.S., including in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York.
Few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements; arrests have been infrequent.Illinois stands out for the magnitude of its problem.“Of all the states in which we’ve been litigating, we are seeing some of the worst and highest numbers of cases of staff perpetrating sexual abuse compared to anywhere in the country,” said Jerome Block, a New York-based attorney whose office brought the lawsuits in Illinois and several other states.Monday's complaints, based on the accounts of 272 people, name several repeat offenders.
A handful have been convicted of sex crimes but not stemming from the accusations in the lawsuits.At least one employee accused in a lawsuit filed Monday still works for the state, according to state records.The lawsuit with the largest number of plaintiffs, 222 men and women who are mostly Illinois residents, details abuse at nine state-run youth detention centers, of which five have since closed.
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