Shocking abuse and neglect in ILLINOIS DCFS exposed

Shocking abuse and neglect in IL Department of Children and Family Services, (DCFS),  was extensively exposed in December of 2014, by reporters of the Chicago Tribune David Jackson, Gary Marx, and Duaa Eldeib.  

While there is a plethora of evidence throughout the country relative to the failures of child “protective” service agencies, (CPS – Don’t let the name fool you!), to protect children that are made wards of the state,  A Miracle for Us has never seen such an exhaustive exposure of but one facet of the incompetence and dangers that these agencies put children into when they are ripped from their families and homes to be made wards of the state than that which was done by the local main stream media the Chicago Tribune.  

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Illinois is the state that continues to hold Missouri resident Isaiah Rider as a ward of the state of Illinois, even beyond his reaching the age of majority in August of 2015.  No one can understand why, but with headlines like this BREAKING NEWS – Labor Day weekend violence toll: 9 slain, 46 wounded relative to Chicago, in addition to the information provided below, Illinois is the LAST place any child should be forced to stay in as a ward of the state, ESPECIALLY when not even from that state – Isaiah’s Mom begs for their lives back!  SEE also:  Gov Rauner CAN FREE kidnapped children – Gov Patrick DID! and LISTEN TO THIS NOW!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbjYIh09wlQ.  (Read MORE on Illinois’ medical kidnappings HERE:  EVERYONE needs to care about THIS! )

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In January, Illinois acting director of DCFS, Bobbie Gregg announced her departure as a result of the Tribune series Harsh Treatment – the same month Governor Elect Rauner came into power.  
By February, newly elected Gov. Bruce Rauner was well aware of how dysfunctional and horrific things were for the children in the care of his state agency, and he hired George Sheldon, a Florida Democrat to head Illinois DCFS.   Claiming there was ‘no quick fix’ to troubled agency, the Incoming DCFS chief vowed transparency.  It’s been almost 9 months, and there is no notable change in such a dangerous and destructive agency/system, even when Sheldon said this of the Governor when Sheldon was initially hired:  “He knows that it’s a problem agency …”  and noted that in “Illinois the percentage of wards who spend more than two years in state custody is nearly twice as high as in other states.  TO Gov Rauner  the director proclaimed:  “Your kids are staying in care much longer than a child should. … The state, long-term, is not a good parent, and I think you’ve got to recognize that.”  

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Below is the Chicago Tribune’s exhaustive exposee on the state of wards of the state in group homes in Illinois.  The same can be found true of group homes throughout the country.  It is a fact that the same abuse and neglect is also found in Foster Care.  The system, by all accounts, in every state, is broken.  There needs to be drastic overhauling before any more kids are taken, and all cases where children have been taken require being thoroughly reviewed, disclosed and rectified.  Instead what you will see across the country is agency after agency taking action when, and only when, this abuse is exposed or a dead child under the supervision of the agency turns up.  Then, instead of seeing any kind of ‘real’ reform or fix, you will see even more children taken, more social workers hired, and more money demanded as the system is overburdened by all the children swept into this nazi like regime that is destroying children and families in the hundreds of thousands.

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THIS NEEDS TO END.  IT HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR DECADES, MADE GRUESOMELY WORSE BY THE ADVENT OF TITLE IV FUNDING THAT PROVIDES INCENTIVES TO STATES TO ACQUIRE FEDERAL FUNDING RELATIVE TO TAKING MORE AND MORE CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS.  THERE ARE ADDITIONAL INCENTIVES FOR STATES TO ADOPT THESE CHILDREN OUT – TO STRANGERS, FOREVER, BY PERMANENTLY STRIPPING PARENTS OF THEIR PARENTAL RIGHTS.  IT IS BARBARIC, DRACONIAN, AND HAPPENING EVERYDAY UNDER COLOR OF LAW.  IT MUST BE STOPPED.  THE TIME IS NOW!

Part 1: Far from a home  Chicago Tribune

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

CAPTION ‘I hate living like this’  Meisha Singleton was sent to Indian Oaks Academy in Manteno in 2012. She was beaten, ran away at least 11 times and said she survived by prostituting herself in Chicago. She was discharged earlier this year.   “I don’t know who’s there for me”, said Meisha Singleton, 19, as she walked the Near North Side on a recent evening.  She’s a former resident of Indian Oaks Academy in Manteno.

• ‘I was getting punched, kicked’
  

  Records and interviews uncover a startling record of violence, sexual assaults and running away at a Rockford facility for girls with behavior problems.

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  Growing up in residential care

  “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.

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  Living through it, speaking out

  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.

  Chicago Tribune – Part 2: Crime flows into the streets

  

  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.

• Files reveal a dangerous place
  

  Confidential juvenile records provide an alarming, firsthand look at chaos, violence and drug use in Lawrence Hall Youth Services’ taxpayer-financed facilities.

  Chicago Tribune – 3: Abused all over again

  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.

• Fleeing to an unsafe haven  Teens living at Indian Oaks Academy spent idle hours dancing, doing drugs and having sex in an abandoned building where they knew staff wouldn’t follow.
  
  Chicago Tribune – Part 4: On the run, selling sex

  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.

• Chicago Tribune – Part 5: Arrested for misbehavior

• Working with Medill Watchdog, the Tribune finds some centers call police after residents push staff, throw food or misbehave in other predictable ways given their histories.

• Chicago Tribune – A nationwide problem

  

  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.

Graphic essays

• In her words
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  Unsafe haven
• Fight and flight

Series reaction

• Lawmakers urge faster action to protect youths at residential treatment sites  U.S. Reps. Danny Davis of Illinois and Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts urged federal health authorities to speed up their investigation of the nation’s largest behavioral health provider, Universal Health Services.
• Fixes to residential treatment on the way in Illinois, but budget woes loom  State officials and child advocates have begun the difficult, deliberate work of revamping Illinois’ child welfare system following reports late last year that young state wards were assaulted, raped and lured into prostitution at taxpayer-financed residential treatment facilities.
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  West Side’s Hartgrove Hospital focus of widening Justice Department probe  The Justice Department’s criminal probe into Universal Health Services has entered a new and more serious phase, focusing on potential wrongdoing by the corporation as a whole and not just its individual facilities.

• Independent monitors to assess Illinois residential treatment centers  In the latest step aimed at reforming Illinois’ troubled residential treatment centers, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to allow independent monitors inside the facilities to evaluate the safety of the youths living in them and determine whether their needs are being met.
• Workers at Rockford girls center: Therapy included cartoons, faked records  At Rock River Academy, hours that were billed as “group therapy” for girls with troubled histories instead were spent watching movies in a common area, with no discussion afterward, according to a state monitoring report and interviews with former workers.
• Troubled Sadie Waterford residential center wants to reopen  A month after Illinois pulled state wards out of Sadie Waterford Manor for their own safety, the residential treatment center is lobbying officials to reopen in a new location, the Tribune has learned.
  
  Center for troubled girls will close, cites decision by DCFS  A prominent but troubled residential facility for youths is closing following Tribune reports that children inside the Rockford center were assaulted and lured into prostitution.

  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.

• Bills introduced in response to investigation  A state lawmaker on Thursday introduced two bills in response to a Tribune investigation that found hundreds of allegations that youths are assaulted and raped by their peers each year at Illinois residential treatment centers, even as authorities failed to act on reports of harm.
• Illinois urged to reform programs for young wards; DCFS director steps down  Illinois authorities urgently need to overhaul the state’s mental health programs for impoverished youth or they will only see more of the violence and abuse exposed by a recent Tribune investigation on residential treatment centers, a panel of experts told state lawmakers Wednesday.  Photos5 VIEW MORE  
  
  

 Violence and chaos at residential treatment centers

Vulnerable kids terrorized, learn life of crime

Youths find perilous refuge in former asylum

 Teens sexually exploited after running from center

Inside one Michigan residential facility

Graphics6VIEW MORE

 Where Illinois wards are placed

Outcomes for youths in residential treatment

State reports detail youths in trouble

Lost treatment time at Lawrence Hall

Outcomes for Lawrence Hall wards

 Rates of emergency medication

Videos

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  Harsh treatment for troubled youth at Illinois residential centers
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  ‘We used to run because staff would treat us wrong’
• ‘At Indian Oaks, I felt like I wanted to die’
• How we did it: Reporting on residential treatment