Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Wrongfully Jailed Children for Months, New Lawsuit Alleges

A new class-action lawsuit alleges that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) knowingly allowed hundreds of children to be wrongfully incarcerated in juvenile jail. According to the suit, the agency failed to find appropriate placements for the children, leaving them incarcerated for as long as 240 days after a judge ordered their release.

“Sometimes I even feel like they wanted me in there, because I was in there so long,” Janiah Caine, an 18-year-old class representative in the lawsuit who was wrongly incarcerated for 166 days, told CBS. “It’s a lot of emotions and feelings that you feel—because nobody wants to be in a horrible place like that, where you’re fighting girls.”

According to the lawsuit, DCFS officials have allowed children to languish in juvenile jails long after judges had ordered their release to an appropriate guardian. The children listed in the suit were all suffering from serious mental health conditions or other disabilities and had come into contact with the juvenile justice system, leading them to be placed in jail. However, they remained in jail long after a court ordered their release because DCFS failed to find appropriate placements for them. In 2021, children in DCFS care were incarcerated for an average of 40 days after they were ordered to be released. In total, these children were wrongfully jailed for 3,200 days in 2021.

The lawsuit claims this practice has continued for over 30 years, despite DCFS officials being well aware of the problem. “Each of the Defendants named in this lawsuit has been made aware