Illinois DCFS accused of letting innocent kids stay behind bars due to lack of staffed beds: lawsuit
'They leave their kids to rot in detention'
COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is accused of allowing innocent children to be kept behind bars, sometimes for weeks at a time. The Cook County Public Guardian said it's because the agency isn't providing enough housing.
One of those children, who is now a teenager, spoke to ABC7 about how to make the situation right.
She is only 18 years old, but Janiah Caine already knows what it's like to be wrongfully incarcerated. As a charge of DCFS while she was a minor, she spent a total of 166 days, over three separate occasions, in Cook County's Juvenile Detention Center -- even after a judge had ordered her release, attorneys said.
"You don't feel safe. The staff don't make you feel safe either. They're not respectful to you. They treat you like nothing," Caine said.
Caine is one of eight defendants named in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Cook County Guardian Charles Golbert against DCFS. He claims the agency routinely leaves children in detention centers for months after their release orders are signed because they don't have enough staffed beds to house them.
RELATED: IL DCFS chief under fire after BGA finds hundreds of foster children being held improperly
"Their parent or their guardian has to come pick them up or take care of them. DCFS doesn't do that. And they don't do that a week later -- They don't do that multiple months later. They leave their kids to rot in detention," Golbert said.
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. Seven are in that very situation today.
"They have empty beds right now," Golbert said. "They just have to pay the money to hire the staff and fill the beds that they have that are empty, that used to have children sleeping in them and now they have children sleeping in jail instead."
"It's not safe there. You don't know when somebody is going to hit you. You don't know what somebody is thinking -- You can go crazy just being in a room by yourself like that," Caine said.
DCFS responded to the accusations that said:
"The Department of Children and Family Services works as quickly as possible to place youth in appropriate and safe settings. Of course, we can only place youth where we have availability that meets their needs, which is why the department is also working to expand the capacity that was hollowed out under previous administrations. Thanks to this work, in recent years we have made progress in reducing the number of youth who remain in the justice system past the date they are allowed to be released and we are deeply committed to continued progress. We cannot comment further due to pending litigation."
