More than 200 men and women were sexually abused as children while in custody at juvenile detention centers in Illinois, according to lawsuits filed on Monday, the latest in a string of complaints alleging decades of systemic child sex abuse.
Three lawsuits filed on Monday detail abuse from 1996 to 2021, including rape, forced oral sex and beatings by corrections officers, nurses, kitchen staff, chaplains and others.
“The State of Illinois has caused and permitted a culture of sexual abuse to flourish unabated in its Illinois Youth Center facilities,” one lawsuit said, adding that Illinois had “overwhelmingly failed to investigate complaints, report abusive staff, and protect youth inmates”.
Overall, 667 people have alleged they were sexually abused as children at youth facilities run by the state and Cook county in lawsuits filed since May.
They are part of a wave of complaints with disturbing allegations at juvenile facilities across the US, including in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York. Few cases have gone to trial or resulted in settlements; arrests have been infrequent.
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