Zach RothPeoria Journal Star
The Mary Davis Detention Home in Galesburg is being accused of abusive treatment of its residents in a new class action lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court in Peoria.
Court documents provided by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois say that the home, which is run by the 9th District Circuit Court, continues to put young residents in solitary confinement despite being warned repeatedly by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice that extensive isolation of its residents isn't safe.
The amended complaint, filed by two current teenage residents of the home on June 11, says that the home uses extended solitary confinement as a form of punishment, putting those who break rules in confinement for 23 1/2 hours a day, for multiple days, at the whim of staff who allegedly don't inform residents of how long the confinement will last. Residents are also allegedly subjected to "traumatic, invasive, fully naked" strip searches without any less invasive services being tried beforehand.
In addition, the home doesn't turn off fluorescent lights in the cells, provides "nutritionally inadequate" meals and doesn't provide people with needed exercise or human interaction with others.
The lawsuit also accuses the home of not providing mental health care to residents who need it, particularly those who could be suicidal, with only mere minutes allowed with the facility's designated social workers.
Educational services are also reportedly limited, with residents sometimes going weeks without any sort of schooling, only completing self-guided worksheets on various subjects. Special education services are also accused of being lacking, even for those who may need them.
One plaintiff, a 17-year-old boy who has been living at the facility for six months, said that he had been placed in "Special Group Status," the term used for the enhanced solitary confinement allegedly provided at the Mary Davis Home. He said that the longer solitary confinement has had a negative impact on his mental health through not being allowed to talk to others and only being able to get out of the cell for up to 30 minutes per day.
It has gotten to the point where staff has placed him on suicide watch, which he feels is a status not taken seriously enough at the home.
He also said that the facility is understaffed and that those who worked there physically abused him on numerous occasions. In one instance, he claimed a staff member handcuffed him and put his knee on his neck to restrain him.
In another instance, a staff member allegedly put him in a chokehold, punched him in the arm and pulled out one of his dreadlocks, according to the complaint.
The teenager said that he felt "humiliated" after one of the strip searches, having been asked to strip completely naked for one of them during his second visit to the facility in 2022.
All told, he said that his experience at the home traumatized him to the point that when he returns home, he is unable to reintegrate into normal life.
The second plaintiff, a 15-year-old boy, said that he feels as if he is being punished for no reason while living at the home, with little time to get out and exercise and the withholding of crucial medication and mental health treatment from him for no obvious reason.
He also accused staff of treating him violently, with one occasion coming when a staff member allegedly slammed his head against a gym wall hard enough to hospitalize him with a mild concussion.
Two other residents – another 17-year-old and 15-year-old – also provided first-hand accounts of life at the home, accusing staff members of being verbally and physically abusive, placing people in enhanced solitary confinement for minor infractions and for providing invasive strip searches, among other things.
The lawsuit says that the experiences of these four are "not unique," accusing the county and officials at the home of being aware of the problems through repeated warnings by IDJJ. On four separate occasions in the past two years, audits have been conducted at the home by the department, which found it being deficient in many categories, such as its use of solitary confinement, poor medical and mental health care, poor education and dining options and the use of routine strip searches.
Even when IDJJ followed up on those reports, the lawsuit says that officials continued to use solitary confinement, even when auditors returned to the facility after being warned.
The suit also said that officials with the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts found the facility to be lacking in quality of care during a 2022 audit and that the Illinois State Board of Education found the facility to have inadequate meal practices during an investigation in 2023.
The complaint accuses officials in Knox County of developing policies of solitary confinement "unmitigated by mental health resources or meaningful educational opportunity," putting children in harm's way through policies that the complaint says has "serious and wide-ranging" negative impacts on them. In addition, they are also accused of creating a culture of psychological and physical abuse through their actions and the conditions of the cells.
The plaintiffs ask that the court prevent the county and others from continuing the alleged actions at the Mary Davis Home, while providing monetary relief in the form of attorney's fees, costs and expenses.
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Knox County is listed as a defendant through the county board, with Chief 9th Circuit Court Judge Raymond Cavanaugh, Knox County Director of Court Services Bridget Pletz and Home Superintendent Wendi Steck also listed as defendants in the suit.
Kevin Fee, a senior special litigation counsel with the ACLU and one of the attorneys representing the clients in the case, said that federal court intervention is the only thing that will force Knox County officials to implement practices to make residents of the Mary Davis Home safer.
"This situation must be rectified now, so that kids at MDH are no longer forced to waste months of their childhood pacing back and forth in a concrete box, and enduring the profound damage caused by solitary confinement," Fee said.
Officials with the Mary Davis Home declined comment on the case, citing the pending nature of the lawsuit.
No dates have been set for hearings in the case. Each of the four defendants have been subpoenaed and must respond to the complaint by the end of the month or risk having judgment entered by default.
