(WTTW News)
Nearly 200 former detainees at Cook County’s Juvenile Temporary Detention Center claim they endured ”atrocious conditions” as they were sexually abused by adult staff members and threatened into remaining silent, a new lawsuit states.
That lawsuit, filed this week on behalf of 193 former JTDC detainees, alleges systematic sexual abuse carried out at the facility over the course of multiple decades since the mid-1990s. The plaintiffs claim the state of Illinois “caused and permitted a culture of sexual abuse to flourish unabated at JTDC.”
“This happened over and over and over again,” Todd Matthews, an attorney with Bailey Glasser LLP, which represents the victims, said during a news conference in Chicago Tuesday morning. “It’s still going on. It has to stop, and this is the way it’s going to stop.”
Former detainees who spoke Tuesday said that even though their abuse occurred years or decades ago, it still traumatizes them to this day.
Phillip Goodwin, a native Chicagoan, said he was already scared to go to the JTDC, but didn’t fully know what to expect when he got there. He claimed he was abused by staff, who then threatened him to keep him quiet.
“If I was nervous before,” he said at the news conference, “I was terrified now.”
Goodwin said he was embarrassed by his experience in the detention center, and felt that he could no longer trust anyone. He told other victims to “stay strong” and know that there are others out there who “care about you and will fight for you.”
“I won’t let our past dictate the rest of your lives,” Goodwin said, “and we will make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else again.”
Similar allegations were made by numerous victims, some of whom claimed they were given food, cigarettes, more desirable chores or privileges, or in one case even marijuana and alcohol, in exchange for sexual favors or for keeping quiet about that abuse, the complaint states.
One victim, identified in the complaint only by his initials, A.M., claimed he was sexually assaulted multiple times by different youth development specialists beginning weeks after his arrival in 2011.
The employees would bring A.M. — who was 16 at the time — to a bathroom shower by himself where they would then abuse him, the complaint states. A.M. was then given extra recreational time and outside food, but the employees allegedly threatened to revoke those privileges if he reported his abuse.
Another victim, identified as D.J., said a pair of staffers sexually abused him at the JTDC when he was 15 or 16 years old in 2013. According to the complaint, the two men would physically restrain D.J. and carry him back to his cell, where they would sexually abuse him. This allegedly occurred seven or eight times.
The complaint states that when D.J. attempted to resist the abuse, the men would “put him in confinement for 24 to 48 hours at a time and (drop) him down a level on his behavioral chart, which revoked certain privileges such as phone time and time outside of his cell.”
Spokespeople from the Cook County chief judge’s office and the office of Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle on Tuesday each said they could not comment on pending litigation.
Earlier this year, the chief judge’s office announced that the Administrative Office of the Illinois Courts — which oversees state courts and detention centers — found the JTDC had met or exceeded all state requirements for juvenile safety and well-being after “significant improvements” were implemented at the facility during the previous year.
The new lawsuits come weeks after the same legal team filed cases alleging similar abuse in Illinois Youth Centers across the state.
“The perpetrators in these cases are detention officers, they’re counselors, they’re medical staff, they’re even supervisors — the very people entrusted with keeping people safe were the ones perpetrating the sexual abuse,” attorney Jerome Block said.
