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Judge issues third contempt order against DCFS Director Smith

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Illinois

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith was held in contempt of court again on Thursday for violating the rights of a teenage boy.

This is the third contempt of court order issued against Smith recently.

In this case, the order involved a 17-year-old who has been locked in a psychiatric hospital more than four months after being ready to be released. If the youth is not properly placed, $1,000-per-day fine will start racking up starting on Tuesday.

In court Thursday, it was stated that wrongly keeping the youth in a psychiatric facility is costing taxpayers $1,000 a day, or $30,000 a month. He has been locked up for more than four months.

Three $1,000 a day contempt orders is over a million a year.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:24 pm

Comments

Interestingly, I hear crickets from anyone when it comes to a question of what actually should be done to correct the problem.

Comment by Former DCFS Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:36 pm
We’ve had multiple Governors from both parties now who have either been unwilling or unable to address the agency’s efforts. What are other states doing that we are not?

Comment by phenom_Anon Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:40 pm
To borrow a phrase: “Our completely sorry state”

Comment by Papa2008 Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:45 pm
If this is the only way that we can ensure that our children are being taken care of then I would encourage every single judge across the state to start holding the department in contempt. Enough is enough.

Comment by FKL Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:48 pm
“If this is the only way that we can ensure that our children are being taken care of then I would encourage every single judge across the state to start holding the department in contempt.”

Is there a suitable place where these children can be properly cared for? If there is no place for them to go, aren’t they better served by remaining in the hospital?

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:51 pm
Huh is absolutely right. I would guess the minor or all the minors are not staying where they are at as a punishment there just is no place else for them. I would love to know the answer. And are children being placed with Catholic Charities or is the state refusing this place because of their beliefs?

Comment by DuPage Saint Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 3:58 pm
So who pays the bill? The Director out of his own personal finances or does the agency?

Comment by Notorious JMB Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:00 pm
“Is there a suitable place where these children can be properly cared for?”

Isn’t that the responsibility of DCFS?

Who was the last administration that did not have a big problem with DCFS?

Comment by Out Here In The Middle Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:01 pm
@ Huh? “Is there a suitable place where these children can be properly cared for? If there is no place for them to go, aren’t they better served by remaining in the hospital?”

Basically, yes. A few years ago you may recall a bit of a hullabaloo about some terrible residential facilities that were found to be very problematic. There were ILGA hearings, a lot of grandstanding. The prior administration at DCFS set a lofty goal of shutting down the worst residential facilities and implementing more specialized foster homes, but have only implemented enough of those to replace a tiny tiny faction of the residential beds that were lost.

So now you have kids who are beyond the need for acute care from a psychiatric hospital, but still need more comprehensive services than a normal foster home can provide. Unfortunately those kids outnumber the available resources.

ALSO, those resources are all privately owned and operated. You can’t FORCE those facilities to take kids, and the kids with the highest needs are often rejected by many many facilities.

The only solution I can think of is that the state needs to get in the business of running and staffing its own facility(ies), but that would cost money. Also we see how great the state is at running the veteran’s homes…

Comment by Former DCFS Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:03 pm
It’s plenty easy to cast blame in this particular case, but there are lots of competing issues at play…..including:

1. Children with severe mental health issues, for which there will never be a cure.
2. Protection of staff from physical harm in handling the above patients.
3. Stretched financial and human resources by the non-profit agencies that attempt to help.

Complicating the matter is the tendency for both parties to look upon any news item as the chance to make “political hay” (Quincy Vet home as example A). The political grandstanding does nothing to solve the matter. But there also comes a time to acknowledge that sometimes we have to accept the “least worst” solution.

Comment by Downstate Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:09 pm
===Three $1,000 a day contempt orders is over a million a year.===

That’s the monetary cost.

We won’t know the political cost to this for some time, and that is far too harsh given the subject at hand, children, and the real pain, real hurt, going on.

Is a director worth all these costs?

Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:18 pm
Former DCFS,
“You can’t FORCE those facilities to take kids”
Exactly right. Facilities for some of these most severe cases would require extremely limited access AND exit points, almost to the point of prison-like security.
Notwithstanding the financial burden of trying to run such an entity, the location of such a facility becomes problematic. NIMBY is the normal response, particularly when there is an incident.
In one case, two clients escaped and broke into a neighborhood home. You can imagine the justifiable outcry from the neighborhood. It took months to repair the facility reputation in the local area.
That one incident was enough to make the facility more than a little gun-shy over the prospect of accepting more challenging clients.

Comment by Downstate Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:24 pm
“Is there a suitable place where these children can be properly cared for?”
These children oftentimes are suffering from the abuse that happens to them. To lock them in a psych hospital is not the answer. In these placements, you have no school, no friends, no family, no community, no nothing. These placements are never intended to be long-term stays. The reason why they are classified is as Beyond Medical Need, is because they have been clinically cleared and no longer need these placements. When the Department fails to remove a child from these placements it is technically a “medical lockout”. As the child’s “parents” they are to ensure that the child is in the least restrictive most family-like setting that is clinically appropriate. This is written into the youth in care bill of rights, along with several other policies. Not to mention a violation of their constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishments.

Comment by FKL Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 4:28 pm
And Director Sullivan didn’t read an email he was cc’d on. Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s getting ridiculous.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 5:01 pm
There is NO place for these individuals to be placed in Illinois. A good friend of mine is working to find placement for her son. At this point DCFS and the state are offering her Quebec, Canada and upper New York as the only options. for her son. The reason DCFS is involved is the young man was abused in his past out of state placement. This is a serious crisis.

Comment by Grateful Gail Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 5:57 pm
I’m trying to follow the money trail. If the State has to pay the fine, where does the money go to?

Comment by IT Guy Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 7:04 pm
===Interestingly, I hear crickets from anyone when it comes to a question of what actually should be done to correct the problem. ===

I’m no stranger to hyperbole, but I think there’s been plenty said about how to address the problem. The agency lacks the bureaucratic capacity to implement the hiring and licensing required to fix the problem in an expedient amount of time.

The judiciary is doing all of us a favor — it is repeatedly drawing attention to the desperate need of a serious intervention at DCFS to make sure that they are capable and able to bring the staff on board that they need and that they are able to recruit and license foster homes.

Comment by Candy Dogood Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 7:18 pm
There’s a closed down community college in Springfield they could convert to house a good number of these kids, close enough for JB and legislators to pop over and inspect on a whim.

I think there’s also a closed hospital building in town, could be converted to a residence hall. There’s 200 odd beds right there, between them. There’s got to be other such available facilities around the state, why not do a public/ private partnership and get.something.done?

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 8:02 pm
Yes plenty has been said here and other media, but crickets from Jay Bob himself about what action he is taking to remedy this crisis. Not like he hasn’t had time to come up with something. And can’t blame Rauner anymore, although Democrats seem as obsessed with him as Republicans are with the dearly departed former speaker. No matter who dis what 2 or 10 years ago, the problem is now and Pritzker is governor now. So let’s hear it Jordan. What’s your boss’ plan to fix this? It’s his job along with the legislature’s, not mine or the media’s or blog commenters’. How much more blood will be on his hands before he takes some action? How many kids’ lives and mental health will be destroyed by his inaction? Tick tock, Mr. Pritzker.

Comment by Captain Obvious Thursday, Jan 13, 22 @ 8:17 pm
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”

DCFS wants to place these kids, trying to incentivize them to do what they already want to do makes little sense.

Comment by Perrid Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 7:04 am
Across the country, child welfare departments are considered “career killers” for leadership positions. It is not an IL only issue. I haven’t seen any state “get it right”.

DCFS has been under a federal consent decree for over 30 years. If that seems absurd, it is but also points to how difficult it is to improve the situation. No fixes will be political wins and all play the long game. Administrations seem hesitant to take those risks and prefer to hire and fire leaders once the inevitable “bad press” hits.

Comment by PrairieStateLover Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 8:17 am
“There’s a closed down community college in Springfield…”

Great suggestions, and these problems won’t be solved without ideas and proposals being proffered.

As I mentioned earlier, the challenge is having a facility that keeps troubled “clients” contained without it being perceived as “prison-like”. The latter perception is why so many of the facilities were closed in the early 80s.

The bigger issue is staffing. Imagine having a facility in which the clients are strapping young men with emotionally troubled backgrounds. Their capacity to lash out and harm the staff is problematic.

From first hand experience, the work comp rates and rules around this are astounding. And that says nothing to the safety and protection of the staff. Finally who wants to work at such a facility, when state reimbursement rates won’t allow for a respectful pay rate. (These are the challenges facing most “private” facilities.)

There are no easy solutions, but I applaud your effort to step up and make suggestions.

Again, we may have to resolve ourselves to the idea that the “least-worst” solution is the best.

Comment by Downstate Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 8:29 am
===The bigger issue is staffing===

That’s exactly right. Buildings are everywhere, staff isn’t.

Comment by Rich Miller Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 8:34 am
Staffing issues are a function of what DCFS pays for residential programs. The article says they pay $1000 a day to the hospital. How about paying that to a Group Home or foster home. I’m sure you will have takers. I think foster parents get like $500 a month or about $17 a day.

Comment by Common Sense Friday, Jan 14, 22 @ 8:44 am