A class action lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services has “willfully and wrongly” left scores of children in its care in juvenile jails up to weeks or months after they were ordered to be released.
By doing so, the department caused damage to these children that was “tremendous and undeniable,” their attorneys alleged. According to Ainsworth, the solution is a simple one: DCFS needs to use its resources to find more homes for children, but the department instead “refuses” to find proper placements.
In one case highlited in the lawsuit, a juvenile referred to only as John — who suffers from “several mental health diagnoses” — was jailed at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for more than five months across 2021 and 2022. While there, he was allegedly unable to receive necessary educational services or mental health care during his incarceration.
That's been going on for a long time. All because a parent won't or is in capable of caring for them.
Perhaps there is a reason to keep these dangerous scumbags locked up. Imagine the suffering from letting them around normal kids.