Illinois State Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) is criticizing the Department of Children and Family Services for “willfully and wrongly” leaving dozens of children in their care locked in juvenile jails even after some children were ordered to be released to their guardians.
A recently filed federal lawsuit accuses the agency of allowing innocent children to be kept behind bars, sometimes for weeks without proper care, despite a judge ordering some children be released to their guardians, ABC 7 News reported.
Janiah Caine, 18, is one of eight people named in the federal civil rights lawsuit after being forced to spend months as a minor wrongfully incarcerated in a juvenile jail over three separate occasions.
“You don’t feel safe,” Caine said. “The staff don’t make you feel safe either. They’re not respectful to you. They treat you like nothing.”
Caine spent 166 days in Cook County’s Juvenile Detention Center, according to ABC 7.
According to the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian, in 2021 there were 84 instances of children left locked up for prolonged periods of time, ABC 7 reported.
