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Exactly what are they hiding?

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* I’m not sure why WBEZ is being blocked from accessing some juvenile prisons where the station has eye-witness reporting that shines a negative light on the facilities, but WBEZ isn’t happy about it…

You may not think what goes on in Illinois’ youth prisons affects you. Think again. Thousands of teenagers from all across the state cycle in and out of Illinois’ eight juvenile prisons each year. What happens to them inside goes back with them to their communities. Taxpayers are footing the more-than-$100 million budget for these places. We want to be able to see for ourselves how they’re run and bring that information to you. But Governor Pat Quinn says no.

From the story…

Eighteen-year-old Brandon, who asked that we not use his last name, has spent nearly a third of his life in jails and prisons for kids in Illinois. He avoided solitary until this year, when he got in a fight near the end of his sentence. He says the harsh conditions made solitary confinement at the St. Charles facility west of Chicago something he’s unlikely to forget. For example, he says your food is handed to you through a small slot in the door. It’s not on one big tray, it’s on several small trays and they come through quickly. The first day he learned not to set the trays on the floor.

BRANDON: Rodents kept climbing on my food. When I set it down, they ran across the floor, ran over my food and ran around the room like six more times and I didn’t see it after that. There’s rats in there. Rats, there’s roaches all in there. On average, you’ll see like seven rats a day. Nine, 10 rats a day, yourself. Not including what everybody else din saw. […]

Brandon says there was feces smeared onto the tiles. He never took a shower during his two week stint in isolation. Brandon doesn’t have too much good to say about the education he received either. He graduated from the prison high school system but he says it was a joke.

WBEZ wanted to get into the St. Charles facility, but the governor’s office wouldn’t grant it, instead offering access to another facility…

These are certainly troubling allegations that merit further investigation to see if they’re true, or partially true, or if the kids are telling tall tales. But Governor Quinn is refusing to let WBEZ inside the Department of Juvenile Justice facilities to see how they’re run, for both the kids and the taxpayers of Illinois. After four months of meetings, emails and phone conversations, WBEZ was invited to go on a single supervised tour of the prison in Chicago, which kids say is much much better than St. Charles in the western suburbs. Quinn said no to WBEZ’s repeated requests for a reporter to spend four days during business hours sitting in classes and visiting other parts of the prison in St. Charles. That’s the same facility where a 16-year-old committed suicide in September.

You can hear the governor’s office response by going here. The answers are pretty weak, particularly considering the allegations…

[Guv’s spokesman Bob Reed]: Let me be clear. We didn’t bar them from all facilities. We offered a tour of the Chicago facility. Your editors decided that that was not the necessary access the station needed to tell its story.

[WBEZ reporter Rob Wildeboer]: Ok. So, do you think that, on a one tour of one facility, we will get a comprehensive, in-depth insight into a $100 million department that services thousands of kids every year in facilities across the state? Do you think we’ll get an in-depth understanding of that department in one tour?

REED: I don’t think you would get an in-depth understanding of that if you toured every facility you wanted, whenever you wanted, for any length of time. This is a long, long process and one of the reasons the governor’s staff wants to take a look at the system is to make sure it has an understanding of what is occurring there.

WILDEBOER: And, again, how would WBEZ doing the same thing at the same time interfere with that at all?

REED: We don’t think it’s appropriate for the press to go in, talk to juveniles who are in our charge. We’re really concerned about protecting their identities, their privacy.

WBEZ has been working on this story and attempting to negotiate with the administration for four months. It’s easy to see why the station is so upset here, particularly since Vinny Schiraldi, who runs the juvenile prison system in Washington, DC, was so open with the station and ridiculed the governor’s reasoning…

SCHIRALDI: Too many juvenile justice systems use those confidentiality rights to protect themselves as ways to protect themselves as opposed to protecting the confidentiality of the kids.

As I’ve been researching juvenile prisons over the last few months, a number of people have suggested I visit D.C., it has a good reputation for rehabilitating kids. I contacted them this week and Schiraldi called me back the same day.

WILDEBOER: I was hoping to come down and visit you guys there. Would that be possible?

SCHIRALDI: Yeah. Absolutely. Come any time you want. Yeah, I told Reggie that, just set it up for, I think next week, you wanted to set it up for? Or this week? I don’t know. Reggie’s going to deal with you on that.

Reggie is Reggie Sanders, the public information officer.

SCHIRALDI: There’s a great school at the facility. You know, you can hang around there, be where the kids are playing basketball. There’s a bunch of cool stuff you can take pictures of, but you’ll pretty much have free reign when you come.

And yet the state says “No way.” This is open government? C’mon.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 3:58 am

Comments

The food served through the slot in the door is called a chuckhole. When a youth is on confinement status they are fed on a tray. The reason the cell door is not opened is to protect the staff. Why open the door of a violent youth when they can be fed through a slot. The rat , mice and roaches is not true. The total lack of programing and leadership in the “new and improved department” is true. The Department of Juvenile Justice is hiding the truth from the radio station.

Comment by St Chas worker Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 7:00 am
The dept was a Blago boondoggle from the beginning - a press pop without a dollar of funding behind it to invest in education, voc training, mental health care, drug treatment, aftercare or making the youth centers safer.

Bill Holland revealed the dept lapsed millions of dollars subsequently appropriated to it by legislators for hiring needed staff.

There have been no capital improvements to the facilities either, for years, due to the budget crater.

Then earlier this year, Quinn tried to close the Pere Marquette center for girls — the one facility where investments have actually been made in piloting the “new approaches” envisioned in the reform plan. Why would Quinn wipe it out? Because, he said, Pere Marquette was too expensive.

Now, this week, comes word from Quinn that Juvenile Justice should be cut by 14 percent next year.

What a fiasco.

Comment by Reality Check Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 7:03 am
It is ludicrous to claim that the press is being denied access due to concerns for juveniles’ confidentiality rights. Back when I was a juvenile attorney, the press was allowed in to juvenile court proceedings. The press was trusted not to publish the juveniles’ names. The reason for denying access to St. Charles is quite probably to avoid shining the spotlight on a disaster.

Comment by Forest Denizen Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 7:27 am
Mr. Sunshine is the governor the now, so everything is a-okay! whatever.

Apparently the juvie justice facilities could use some disenfectant, eh Mr. Sunshine?

Geeze, somebody call Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch etc. so they can do to the Il. juvie justice system what they did to Gitmo: shut it down.

Rodents eat before the children do and the place is unsanitary and unhealthy. These are human rights violations for sure. Maybe the children would be better placed at Thomson, since it’s so spankin’ brand new and clean.

Juvie Justice facilities infested with rats, and no abatment services? Do the people runnung the facility care about the living the conditions. I’m not exactly bleeding heart type and am hardcore anti violent criminal. But, if my money has to spent on the incacerated in Illinois (juvie or adult), I would rather that they eat the food I paid for rather than rats.

Did Quinn inherit a mess of a juvie justice system? yes. Absolutely! But, that doesn’t excuse or explain how his administration has handled matters pertaining to juvie justice and media inquiries about the system. his administration has mishandled this issue. plain and simple.

Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:00 am
Now, they have to be let in. Four days might be a bit much, but something has to be worked out, pronto.

I’m surprised a news organization would negotiate for four months. A couple of weeks, then raise the roof.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:22 am
One way to address the problems in juvenile detention is for judges and prosecutors to send fewer low-rick juveniles to detention.

Skipping school?
Send ‘em to juvenile lockup.

Fights with his step-dad?
Send ‘em to lockup.

Sas-mouth with the principle?
Lockup.

There are proven alternatives to Department of Corrections-style detention for juveniles. Alternatives that have better outcomes and COST LESS.

It is time for those in the system to stop thinking of juvenile prisons as the default answer to problems with low-risk kids.

– MrJM
http://twitter.com/misterjayem

Comment by MrJM Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:22 am
lol. WBEZ is on the warpath now with this…
“Governor Pat Quinn Breaking Promise on Open Government”

the Quinn Administration will do an abrupt aboutface in 5….4….3….2….

*doors to illinois juvie justice facilities flung wide open*

er, we’ll see.

Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:45 am
I suspect there is a lot more to the story than is being told, by both sides. Rats…..perhaps, but not likely. Screwed up system overall….very likely. Will be interesting when the full story is revealed.

One must keep in mind that these are not our finest citizens so there is some question as to what they deserve. Clean quarters, reasonable effort to educate, and okay food should be the norm.

Folks working in these holes are probably not very motivated as it is and cuts will continue to drag them down. They’ll pass some of that anxiety to the prisoners, but still, rats seem to be a stretch.

Comment by Justice Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:50 am
Caught the report last night. Interesting stuff, hearing the DC guy just casually say, yeah anytime was worth it vs. the administration spokesman dancing around everything…

Comment by OneMan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 8:52 am
The image of children and young people being proffered food through a hole in the door “to protect the staff” is an image I won’t forget. It sounds like those bad prison movies, positively medieval. But…this is Illinois state government–a bad movie all around.

The Democrats constantly proclaim their abiding concern for children but in this state it’s all talk. Institutions to care for children exist for patronage and profit, with quality of care almost incidental…and therefore nonexistent. The Democrats ignored maltreatment of children at the Cook Juvenile Dentention Center, a massive patronage farm for county Dems, for decades until a lawsuit forced modest changes, with the struggle against patronage and maltreatment ongoing even under a judge’s supervision.

Yesterday, the Trib published an article on the allegede overuse of mood-altering drugs on DCFS foster children at Streamwood Hospital, run by PSI, a private contractor, based on an investigative report by UIC. The DCFS director,
a Blagojevich appointee, expressed the usual shock and dismay but….why is this still happening and why didn’t McEwen know about it.
In 2008 the Tribune published an investigative series on PSI at another facility. And DCFS’ underworked and highly paid managers are supposed to approve each administration of psychotropic drugs to state wards. Why were they approving these drugs. And don’t these kids have caseworkers? Didn’t they notice the kids seemed doped up all the time? McEwen has some explaining to do but he works for Pat Quinn so accountability will be minimal.

So now we learn that conditions at the Illinois youth jails are really bad. No doubt Quinn’s “investigators” are doing a little damage control while they “investigate,” what with that primary coming up and all. That’s probably why the station can’t get in. The kids better take advantage of what improvements they can obtain during this pre-election season because once it’s over, it’ll all go back to normal. The kids just don’t have enough political clout.

Comment by cassandra Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:10 am
=== The rat , mice and roaches is not true. ===

Absent Freedom of the Press, how do we know that?

I heard the interview with the former resident, he sounded pretty convincing to me.

You’d think that Pat Quinn, who rose to fame on the crest of the Watergate scandal would have more sense.

Its not the incompetence, its the cover-up that gets you every time.

Here’s the worst part for Quinn: he’s getting ready to play gotchya with Dan Hynes over Burr Oaks in the black community, and he’s just handed Hynes the perfect counter-attack.

“Pat Quinn’s digging up Burr Oak because he doesn’t want to talk about the rat-infested facilities he’s keeping our kids locked up in.”

Oof.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:13 am
=== On the campaign trail, Barack Obama made much of the secrecy that defined George W. Bush’s time in office. No more of that if voters chose him, the candidate proclaimed, and on his second day in office he vowed we’d see “an unprecedented level of openness in government.”

That statement might be more accurate had he included the caveats, “if it’s convenient or doesn’t embarrass us.” ===

That bit from a Peoria Journal Star editorial may as well have been written about the Quinn administration. Transparency works when you’re a candidate or an “outsider,” but not so much when you’re actually in office.

Comment by Coach Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:14 am
Quinn the hapless, hopeless and clueless.

Fumigate!

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:17 am
=== The Democrats constantly proclaim their abiding concern for children but in this state it’s all talk. ===

Um, just a second Cassandra.

The St. Charles facility is located in the districts of Republican State Rep. Tim Schmitz and Republican Senator John Millner.

And if you think these problems started in 2003, you’re deluded.

I’m not defending Quinn here, and I was more than critical of Blagojevich.

But let’s also understand that Gov. Quinn has been battling the decimation of all state programs that serve youth for the last year because Republicans flat-out refuse to pass the revenue necessary to fund a responsible budget, whether you’re talking about public education, abused and neglected children, homeless youth, health care for kids, or juvenile delinquency.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:21 am
Dumb. So dumb.

A WBEZ story about visiting the prison and seeing bad conditions coupled with Quinn saying what he will do to improve them is a short-lived, only mildly damaging story.

This story, about how, when it comes to substance, Quinn’s folks are anti-transparency, will have legs for awhile and makes for a much easier, more damaging talking point for Hynes and the Republicans.

Dumb.

Comment by Montrose Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:23 am
I find it interesting that solitary confinement is used for youth facilities. Back in March, The New Yorker had a great article that asked if long-term solitary confinement was torture. Here’s a snip:

After a few months without regular social contact, however, his experience proved no different from that of the P.O.W.s or hostages, or the majority of isolated prisoners whom researchers have studied: he started to lose his mind. He talked to himself. He paced back and forth compulsively, shuffling along the same six-foot path for hours on end. Soon, he was having panic attacks, screaming for help. He hallucinated that the colors on the walls were changing. He became enraged by routine noises—the sound of doors opening as the guards made their hourly checks, the sounds of inmates in nearby cells. After a year or so, he was hearing voices on the television talking directly to him. He put the television under his bed, and rarely took it out again.

One of the paradoxes of solitary confinement is that, as starved as people become for companionship, the experience typically leaves them unfit for social interaction. Once, Dellelo was allowed to have an in-person meeting with his lawyer, and he simply couldn’t handle it. After so many months in which his primary human contact had been an occasional phone call or brief conversations with an inmate down the tier, shouted through steel doors at the top of their lungs, he found himself unable to carry on a face-to-face conversation. He had trouble following both words and hand gestures and couldn’t generate them himself. When he realized this, he succumbed to a full-blown panic attack.

It’s worth your time to read the whole article. It’ll definitely change your perspective on the topic.

Comment by IL Yeezy Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:49 am
I didn’t say these problems started in 2003. But the Democrats have been in charge of the state for six years (and came in trumpeting a “reform” agenda, as yet largely unrealized). They have the ball–and the responsibility. Talking about the sins of the Republicans is an increasingly weak defense.

I don’t know anything about Schmitz and Miller but I imagine they’d be suprised to learn they had management responsibility for St. Charles.
And I suspect the problems at St. Charles, DCFS and the Audy home have as much as not more to do with a lackadaisical and highly politicized management culture than a lack of cash. It doesn’t cost that much to keep a place clean and to check out the powerful medications before you
feed them to the kids.

Comment by cassandra Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:50 am
YDD,
The Democrats control both the House and Senate in Springfield. Quinn shut the Republicans out, thinking he would not need them. He should not have needed them. The tax hike could have been passed by the House dems, just as the Senate dems had, but the House dems as we all know did not.

Comment by Okay Then... Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:51 am
Gee, this is the stuff you hear about from South America jails…there’s NO EXCUSE for that kind of living conditions in American mails.

Comment by Segatari Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:51 am
It is becoming more and more obvious that everything Quinn supposedly stood for for the last 30 years was bull and now that he is on the inside and endorsed by the cook county dem machine he has become the ultimate insider obstructing the people’s right to know. Some populist! It is time for a real change. The Democratic party needs a real administrator who will address the problems of the state without regard to political aspirations. Quinn has proven over and over again that he will say and do anything to get elected. His performance in office for 1 short year proves he can’t govern. Let’s get him outta there!

Comment by Bill Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:53 am
Who in the dem party should be in there, Bill? Thinking of throwing your hat in?

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 9:59 am
WCW - Jeez, any mention of Quinn and you’re immediately on the “String him up!” bandwagon. Did he assault you in a previous life? How about taking a breather and figure out if he deserves to be strung up first.

That said, I do think its a serious problem if Quinn is blocking any investigation into the situation. This is a far worse issue to me than Burr Oak if conditions are as bad as the kid says they are, and I’m leaning toward believing him.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:02 am
This is a great piece of reporting despite the stonewalling from the Governors office. WBEZ, congratualtions for uncovering a dark corner of the states correctional aparatus that seems to need some light shined on it.

Comment by Moving to Oklahoma Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:05 am
===Who in the dem party should be in there===

Steve Rauschenberger.

Comment by Obamarama Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:07 am
What we are witnessing here is how The Internet, bloggers and how new technologies are bursting through what was once closed doors.

We live in a new era of transparency. So we need a new approach to government information.

Whatever the stories are, is actually inmaterial. You don’t need to be either accurate, or even fact-based to tear down these doors. All you have to be is provacative enough to start a conversation. Why? Because once it appears that a door is locked - people are today demanding that it be opened.

There are fewer options available for government to give as reasons to keep these doors locked.

Every government institution needs to be fully transparent enough to satisfy the rumors, stories, and tidbits that pass through our public conversations. They need a clear and understandable, and publically accepted procedure to handle these situations.

The longer governments fight with closed doors, the less citizens are willing to accept government in their daily lives. Our cynicism is not based merely on ideologies and piffle - they are also based on the public responses given by governments when handling these cases.

The time has come for government to reform itself in this area.

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:07 am
Also Quinn is to blame. He is the governor. We are to blame the governor to get his or her attention. We have politics to use as leverage to open these doors, reform our procedures, and to demand public accountability.

You don’t defend governors - they ain’t royalty. They work for us, remember?

Comment by VanillaMan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:09 am
DD–I think Bill is still smarting from his lost campaign to become the next US Senator. But he makes several good points…count me among those disappointed in the Quinn administration.

Comment by Vote Quimby! Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:13 am
According to the Illinois Juvenile Justice website, Kurt Friedenauer is the director, yet another Blagojevich appointee kept on by Pat Quinn, appointed 2004. Actually, if I recall correctly,his appointment seemed less political and more reformist than many of Blaog’s agency director hires. But, five years in, if things are as bad as alleged….where has he been. Could he be another victim of Democratic Machine politics, where politics and patronage trump absolutely everything. Many highly qualified experts are simply not prepared for that battle when they take government jobs. It’s so not all about the
kids.

Comment by cassandra Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:31 am
YDD -
For what it was worth St. Charles wasn’t that bad in the early 90’s. I knew a guy who would go over and volunteer with the Neuman Center at NIU. He never talked about vermin, told me why you never eat pork served at a meal there, but didn’t mention vermin.

Comment by OneMan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:40 am
“He says the harsh conditions made solitary confinement at the St. Charles facility west of Chicago something he’s unlikely to forget.”

Eighteen. Spent 1/3 life behind bars. That makes it since age 12.

So finally he faces conditions that are going to make him not want to come back.

Maybe they should all get solitary at the beginning of their juvenile confinements.

Comment by True Observer Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:51 am
+Maybe they should all get solitary at the beginning of their juvenile confinements.+

Are you honestly encouraging putting a pre-teen in solitary confinement?

Comment by Montrose Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 10:56 am
Obamarama and VQ,

The dems are on the outs. Even if they have good candidates the dems will be perceived by the voting public as the source of the problem. Too much power concentrated in too few people. The incumbent office holder/party will be removed.

Unless Bill runs, of course.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 11:22 am
DupageDan…agreed the Dems will be facing a GOP backlash next fall. People I know who never gave a whit about politics before are now angry and are threatening to register to vote! I know a few of them are just disguising their racism (and these are my friends/acquaintances), but the ballot box doesn’t count intent.
Weren’t Bill’s petitions challenged?

Comment by Vote Quimby! Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 11:45 am
Thank you to all of my supporters for touting my candidacy for governor, however, at this point let me state unequivocally that I am not and will not be a candidate for governor of Illinois. I couldn’t afford the pay cut and besides, who would want to be governor right now? There are no answers to the problems that Illinois has at this point in history. Tax? Don’t Tax? Cut? Don’t cut? The easy way out, I guess, is to blame hard working state employees, demonize public service providers and recipients and hold tea bag parties,and encourage the old class warfare enthusiasts, and stiff the states providers. I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore.

Comment by Bill Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 12:13 pm
Rich, I did a little story on Cook County Judges. I wish you real Journalists would do stories on Cook County Judges. P.S. Quinn looks silly.

Comment by Patrick McDonough Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 12:14 pm
When Bill says he doesn’t have the stomach for “it” anymore it’s time to reflect on our situation. It seems we should assume anyone wanting to be the gov has got some serious screws loose. Tough times lie ahead.

Comment by dupage dan Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 1:17 pm
In the interest of fairness - St.Charles Youth Home sits in the Senate district of Mr.Chris Lauzen, not John Millner. The surrounding districts are Millner (to the east) and Noland (to the north)

This post and the comments are frightening to me. These are our children, after all.

Comment by collar observer Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 1:19 pm
This story was really memorable to listen to. Again, I wonder why so many people are backing Quinn. everyday there is another story about him flip flopping, changing his position on this or that. He mishandled the budget negotiations from the beginning. He’s really lame. This report just shows how even lamer he is and how bad is press people are - - duh - this is PR 101.

Comment by addison Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 2:13 pm
@ Small Town Liberal

no. i just had really high expectations of quinn. i don’t think i was wrong in that because he was the good government type. i feel betrayed and let down by his performance as governor. btw…i feel the same way about obama as president.

Comment by Will County Woman Friday, Dec 11, 09 @ 4:22 pm
I’ve worked a both types, adult and Juvie. There is no money. The Juvenile Justice Dept. is a bad joke. A training program for future adult offenders. Unless you’ve work under those conditions you have no idea of what is really going on, you surely won’t find out from the administration.

Comment by Tobor Saturday, Dec 12, 09 @ 8:09 am