State officials mum on youth prison report

Gov. Pat Quinn continued to avoid questions Tuesday about a report detailing safety, sanitation and maintenance problems at a St. Charles youth prison.

The governor's office referred all questions related to the John Howard Association's report on the "appalling" conditions at the Illinois Youth Center to the Department of Juvenile Justice, which released only a brief statement.

"The facility at St. Charles has some infrastructure issues that must be addressed," the statement read. "In fact, last week we submitted a funding request to the Capital Development Board for improvements. While we recognize physical deficiencies at the aging facility, the conditions don't pose an immediate risk to youth."

Department spokeswoman Januari Smith said there would be no further comment at this time on the report, which detailed how inmates at the state's largest juvenile corrections facility are under-supervised and living in substandard conditions that make it easy to hurt themselves or others.

Anders Lindall, spokesman for state union employees, said representatives have long sought additional funding for staffing, rehabilitative prison programs and infrastructure improvements, but have been impeded by the "state's broken budget and utter lack of resources."

"Now, they're letting the facilities essentially rot and fall down because the budget is seriously damaged," Lindall said. "Our structural deficit has come home to roost."

The report released Monday was based on site visits by the John Howard Association of Illinois, a prison reform group, in the weeks following the Sept. 1 suicide of a 16-year-old inmate who hanged himself from his bunk bed.

Among other findings, the 13-page report called attention to unsafe beds, toilets, air vent covers and other items in inmates' rooms that lend themselves to suicides and violence.

On Tuesday, the Department of Juvenile Justice agreed to look into requests by the Daily Herald for suicide statistics and documentation of funding requests in recent years. However, the department still has not responded to a Sept. 14 request by the newspaper for information on the most recent suicide under the Freedom of Information Act.

Edward Huntley, chief legal counsel and FOIA officer for state corrections, did not return a message Tuesday. Smith said she had no information on the status of the request.

State Rep. Annazette Collins, a Chicago Democrat who chairs the state's Juvenile Justice Reform Committee formed under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said she blames politicians who spend money only when it's politically advantageous.

"People are not going to care because kids don't vote," said Collins, who proposes using group homes rather than youth prisons. "We need leadership, and we need some direction, and we need some money."

Currently, 275 boys are housed at the Illinois Youth Center's 125-acre campus on Route 38. The medium-security prison with a capacity of 318 opened more than a century ago, in 1904, according to state records.

Inside, the John Howard Association described "numerous buildings ... crumbling and abandoned due to years of neglected maintenance" and a chapel featuring an original work by world-renowned Chicago artist Warner Sallman as unusable due to mold and mildew problems caused by a leaking roof.

Kane County Associate Judge Karen Simpson, who spent more than a year hearing detention cases in juvenile court, said she was "surprised" by the association's findings, but like all judges has no control over which facilities prisoners go to after being sentenced.

"I think judges should be able to rely upon the Department of Corrections, whether it be an adult or juvenile matter, to follow standards and guidelines they are mandated to," Simpson said. "I think that goes without saying."

McHenry County Chief Judge Michael Sullivan said prison is already a last resort for most youthful offenders.

"Certainly it (the report) would give one pause, but you don't have a lot of alternatives," he said. "It's certainly not an ideal situation, and with the state of the state economy, I don't know what's going to happen (to improve it). It's something a juvenile court judge may have to consider, but you have to deal with the situation at hand and make the right judgment."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=329964">Illinois Youth Center 'dangerous,' study suggests <span class="date">[10/19/09]</span></a></li> </ul> <h2>Related documents</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="/pdf/iycvisit091409.pdf">Full report on issues found at IYC</a></li> <li><a href="/pdf/iycpressrelease.pdf">Press release from the John Howard Assoc.</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>