An Illinois youth lockup is "no place for children," argued a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in June. A new ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois analysis of documents from the lawsuit and several state audits, among other records, found that incarcerated children have frequently been subject to "troubling conditions" in more than a dozen youth detention centers in Illinois.
In these facilities, youth have been "tased, pepper sprayed and roughed up by staff and law enforcement officers; forced into isolation for days at a time," according to the ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois analysis. Incarcerated youth have also been "denied access to their psychotropic medications and mental health treatment; and received little or no schooling, despite state and federal laws mandating that the youth receive educational services while incarcerated."
