Children face solitary confinement in cells at Illinois juvenile detention facility, ACLU says

[Camille]

Children face solitary confinement in cells at Illinois juvenile detention facility, ACLU says​

CHICAGO (AP) — Children as young as 11 are confined alone to cells the size of parking spaces up to 23 hours a day at a juvenile detention center in Southern Illinois, according to a lawsuit filed by ACLU of Illinois.

Young people at the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center in Benton must ask staff permission to flush the toilet, and they can go days or weeks without access to schoolwork. Black mold grows on the walls, according to the lawsuit filed Friday, and there are no mental health professionals employed at the facility.

The lawsuit seeks a court order compelling the facility to improve conditions immediately, on the basis of deprivation of their rights under the 14th Amendment.

“These are not conditions that anybody, let alone any child, should be subjected to,” said Kevin Fee, the lead lawyer on the case, describing the situation as “inhumane to the level of being unspeakable.”

In general, the conditions of juvenile detention centers in the U.S. have been slowly improving in the last few decades thanks to research on the harms of solitary confinement, so this case is “especially frightening,” said clinical and forensic psychologist Apryl Alexander, who works with detained youth.

“We’re supposed to be using the juvenile legal system for rehabilitation and not punishment. These are youth who are capable of change — we recognize that developmentally and personally. And so we should be treating them as such,” Alexander said.

Fee added that the Franklin detention center is used to hold kids before they have been sentenced or found guilty by a court.

The ACLU of Illinois spoke with more than a dozen youngsters who are either detained currently or have been detained at the facility within the past few weeks about their experiences there, Fee said.

“The idea that children would spend any portion of their childhood locked in solitary confinement is an egregious abuse,” Fee said.

Solitary confinement is “extremely harmful for everybody who is locked up, but particularly for children spending that much time in a brightly lit room, unable to really sleep properly,” Fee said.

The practice has been banned for youth held by the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice since 2015, and on Friday, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed legislation making it illegal to use on “young detainees in detention centers for any purpose other than preventing immediate physical harm.”

The law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Alexander added that the majority of suicides that happen in detention occur when a person is in solitary confinement.
It is also important to consider that many youth in the juvenile legal system experienced trauma before they were detained, “so putting them in solitary confinement can also be retraumatizing,” Alexander said.

Neither the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center nor the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice immediately responded to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

 

[Ceenote]

These are not conditions that anybody, let alone any child, should be subjected to

Fucked them kids!!

 

[Camille]

Fucked them kids!!

I hope you are joking and I'm just too slow to pick up on the sarcasm. In case you aren't... would you want your child held under such conditions? Or your niece? Nephew? There needs to be humane conditions for people being held. Potential innocents are among them, as the article stated... Franklin detention center is used to hold kids before they have been sentenced or found guilty by a court.

 

[gene cisco]

Don't expect much from this thread. I remember bringing up the conditions of the juvy system in Cleveland(mostly black youth) when folks were ranting about the mean twitter man and illegals in cages. Got crickets.

 

[Camille]

Don't expect much from this thread. I remember bringing up the conditions of the juvy system in Cleveland(mostly black youth) when folks were ranting about the mean twitter man and illegals in cages. Got crickets.

I'm pro everybody being treated decently. Both situations are wrong. I realize funding and staff aren't always what they should be, but certain stuff, like clean water, ability to have good hygiene etc, should be basics.

 

[crazyace718]

Yall understand that they aren't just arbitrarily thrown into solitary, right? You get put in there when you continue to break the rules even when you're already in jail. For example let's say that one of these kids has a habit of sucker punching or cutting other kids or staff. Is everyone's health and safety supposed to be at risk because this little motherfucker can't keep his hands to himself?

 

[Camille]

Yall understand that they aren't just arbitrarily thrown into solitary, right? You get put in there when you continue to break the rules even when you're already in jail. For example let's say that one of these kids has a habit of sucker punching or cutting other kids or staff. Is everyone's health and safety supposed to be at risk because this little motherfucker can't keep his hands to himself?

So being exposed to black mold is an acceptable punishment?

 

[crazyace718]

So being exposed to black mold is an acceptable punishment?

They can clean that up easily. But obviously the article wasn't about improving conditions in solitary. It was about getting rid of it all together.

 

[Camille]

They can clean that up easily. But obviously the article wasn't about improving conditions in solitary. It was about getting rid of it all together.

How many Kalief Browder's do we need before you would think this is a bad idea?

New data: Solitary confinement increases risk of premature death after release

Any amount of time spent in solitary confinement increases the risk of death after release from prison, including deaths by suicide, homicide, and opioid overdose.

www.prisonpolicy.org

Excerpt:

The study identifies two additional factors correlated with a heightened risk of death after release: race and the amount (length and frequency) of solitary confinement. All incarcerated people of color are more likely to die within a year of release, and the experience of solitary confinement only amplifies this racial disparity. A previous study found that, compared to their share of the total prison population, Black men and women are overrepresented in solitary confinement, exposing them disproportionately to its harms. And unsurprisingly, more frequent placements in solitary confinement—as well as longer stays—are associated with worse outcomes across both white and nonwhite populations.

What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind? | FRONTLINE

Supporters say the practice helps keep prisons safe, and that may be true. What’s undeniable, however, is that solitary confinement can also take a heavy mental toll.

www.pbs.org

 

[Mrfreddygoodbud]

I think its pretty obvious we are under occupation on this continent...

you compare our incarceration process to that of Norway or Switzerland...

those countries are NOT under occupation....the folks running those countries

they actually care about their people..and give them legit chances to rehabilatate

Slavery has never been abolished in the corporation we think is a country

U.S.A United States is NOT America, its OF America... it does its dirty deeds and Hides

under America....

they just refer to it as the Penal system

and coded it ... like they do all legalese...

Those children are being programmed to be monsters so they can be unleashed back in to

our community to produce other monsters.... like that rapper ynw nelly or whatever his name is, you can tell he is programmed

to be a little demon.... if you cant look at him and tell he is possessed, your first eye erroneously known as your third eye is

blind as fuck...

They are trying to produce more ynw nelly's or whatever his name is, and put him in the hood..

they are also using incarceration as a faggot factory, they allow so much male rape to take place

you would have to be a fool to not conclude its not orchestrated....its by design.

Its a damn shame what they are doing to our youth, but knowing we are under occupation,

and have been given liberties to feed the freedom illusion....

I am not surprised at all... I also KNOW there is much more sinister things happening that

they are not even touching..

But its all good, at the end of the day everything is in divine order, the devil already LOST

we just going through the motions.. even though good and evil need to exist, the good will always

victor over evil... and make evil its bitch!!

In the mean time we got to focus and give props to the youth that are doing good and avoiding

the traps..


Sometimes we get too caught up and forget to encourage and support the youth

Holding it down and encouraging them to continue making the right life choices...

 

[RoomService]

And people keep telling you that voting doesn’t matter.

 

[crazyace718]

How many Kalief Browder's do we need before you would think this is a bad idea?

New data: Solitary confinement increases risk of premature death after release

Any amount of time spent in solitary confinement increases the risk of death after release from prison, including deaths by suicide, homicide, and opioid overdose.

www.prisonpolicy.org

Excerpt:

The study identifies two additional factors correlated with a heightened risk of death after release: race and the amount (length and frequency) of solitary confinement. All incarcerated people of color are more likely to die within a year of release, and the experience of solitary confinement only amplifies this racial disparity. A previous study found that, compared to their share of the total prison population, Black men and women are overrepresented in solitary confinement, exposing them disproportionately to its harms. And unsurprisingly, more frequent placements in solitary confinement—as well as longer stays—are associated with worse outcomes across both white and nonwhite populations.

What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind? | FRONTLINE

Supporters say the practice helps keep prisons safe, and that may be true. What’s undeniable, however, is that solitary confinement can also take a heavy mental toll.

www.pbs.org

Kalif Browder had mental health problems before he got locked up. He wasn't arbitrarily put in solitary when he got to rikers island. He was put there because he habitually broke the rules ranging from fighting other inmates to terrorizing staff. I personally know officers that worked in his jail and he was a terror. Last of all Browder killed himself when he was out of jail. He did it because after all the publicity and notoriety he fucked up again and was headed back to jail. You mix that with his mental health problems that he had before getting locked up and what do you expect?

 

[gene cisco]

I'm pro everybody being treated decently. Both situations are wrong. I realize funding and staff aren't always what they should be, but certain stuff, like clean water, ability to have good hygiene etc, should be basics.

Well, I'm pro citizens taking priority over folks who aren't. If a person can't keep their own bills paid, they are foolish to worry about the bills of others. Sure, leftists whites chilling at starbucks can worry about how folks who are fleeing conditions similiar to those of our inner cities(proven by some of our cities ranking higher than those places in crime), but black community shouldn't and is foolish to follow white leftists on certain issues.

And yeah, some of the kids going through juvy are Michael Myers types. I get the position of some posters. But the problem is throwing those who aren't in with those types. And then they have overcrowded situations. Rape incidents were rampant up here. All types of shit. Some try to go to solitary just don't get away from others.

Juvy needs to be a priority even over adult prisons. Because catching SOME of those kids at the right time will prevent them from coming back. This is way more important to the black community than illegals in cages, but MSM will never make it a priority. The way they are housing youth offenders in this country and turning them into cold blooded criminals is criminal itself.

 

[Ceenote]

I hope you are joking and I'm just too slow to pick up on the sarcasm. In case you aren't... would you want your child held under such conditions? Or your niece? Nephew? There needs to be humane conditions for people being held. Potential innocents are among them, as the article stated... Franklin detention center is used to hold kids before they have been sentenced or found guilty by a court.

I feel you, but our cook county jail is done for the same reason..people before they have been sentenced or found guilty, but i dont see anyone trying to find reason to make it better for them, not that i want anyone to either! But u acting like they are not there for a reason.. im sorry but i have seen 14 year old shoot and kill without n e means of remorse! They have people just thinking one way when in fact this is jail/lockup! They are there for a reason! I stand by what i said mentioned fuck dem kids!