KIDS IN SOLITARY

Lawsuit Alleges ‘Unspeakable’ Treatment at Illinois Youth Detention Center

The ACLU accused the juvenile detention center in Illinois of horribly mistreating children in its custody.

A new lawsuit accuses a juvenile detention center in Illinois of “unspeakable” treatment toward children, including tossing kids into solitary confinement and keeping them in a facility riddled with black mold. The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU, alleges that the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center is depriving the children in custody of their rights under the 14th Amendment. The organization claims to have interviewed at least a dozen kids with first-hand insight into atrocious conditions at the facility, where kids as young as 11 are allegedly confined alone to parking lot-sized cells, denied access to schoolwork, and have no mental health professional on site to help them. “These are not conditions that anybody, let alone any child, should be subjected to,” the lead lawyer on the case told the Associated Press.