
STOP taking OUR children – ALL children belong under the protective umbrella of loving parents.
Children have been attacked and abused at taxpayer-funded residential centers; thousands flee to the streets. But Illinois continues to send state wards there.MORE
Records and interviews uncover a startling record of violence, sexual assaults and running away at a Rockford facility for girls with behavior problems.
“I feel like they took my life away,” says an Illinois teen who was shuttled among six facilities for a decade, beginning at age 8.
Young women who used to live at Rock River Academy tell of being beaten by peers upon arrival, of running away, of being mocked and ignored by staff.
Preyed on by peers and schooled in crime, some young residents of a Chicago center left regularly to commit assaults and thefts in the community.
Confidential juvenile records provide an alarming, firsthand look at chaos, violence and drug use in Lawrence Hall Youth Services’ taxpayer-financed facilities.
A shocking number of sexually abused youths who were sent to residential treatment for safety and help reported being attacked again while in the facility’s care.
Girls in residential treatment often find that prostitution is an accepted fact of life among their peers. Some disappear into that world, never to return.
Violence and running away can be documented at residential centers across the U.S., including facilities in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, the Tribune and Medill Watchdog report.
Justice Department explores taking action on violent Illinois youth centers Illinois’ troubled residential treatment centers for children and teens are drawing the attention of federal authorities after the Tribune documented hundreds of rape and assault allegations and found that state officials kept sending juvenile wards to the most violent facilities.