South Central Reporter

Illinois state Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Effingham) has condemned the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) following a report that accused the agency of "willfully and wrongly" leaving dozens of children locked away in juvenile jails even after some of them had been ordered released to their guardian.

A recently filed federal lawsuit accused the government agency of allowing innocent children to be kept behind bars, sometimes for weeks at a time and without proper care, even after a judge had ordered at least of some of them to be released; a WLS news report said.

"The federal lawsuit alleges up to 80 kids were left in jail an average of 40 days longer than was necessary and at least one of the kids was as young as 11," Wilhour recently told the South Central Reporter. "These experiences are traumatizing to anyone but especially to kids. We need to do right by our kids and fix this situation sooner rather than later."

Teenager Janiah Caine is one of eight defendants named in the federal civil rights lawsuit after being forced to spend months wrongfully incarcerated in a juvenile jail over three separate occasions.

"You don't feel safe," Caine told WLS. "The staff don't make you feel safe either. They're not respectful to you. They treat you like nothing."

Statistics recently made public by the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian showed that as recently as in 2021 there were 84 instances of children left locked up for prolonged periods of time, WLS said. At least seven of those children remain in custody to this day.

"This is happening under JB Pritzker's watch," Wilhour told the Reporter. "Instead of being a silent spectator, he should be actively working toward finding solutions to the placement problems within DCFS. It is clear Marc Smith is not up to the task. The Governor needs to find someone who is.

"It is time for Marc Smith to step down. We need to start there, and then we need to conduct a complete investigation into what is going on at DCFS."