Chambana Sun

Illinois State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) recently weighed in on a recent federal lawsuit that accuses the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) of keeping children behind bars.

A recently filed federal lawsuit accuses the government agency of allowing innocent children to be kept behind bars, sometimes for weeks at a time and without proper care, even after a judge had ordered at least some of them to be released into the care of their guardian, ABC 7 News.

Teenager Janiah Caine is one of eight defendants named in the federal civil rights lawsuit after being forced to spend months wrongfully incarcerated in a juvenile jail over three separate occasions, during which she told investigators she never felt safe and was often disrespected while being held at the facility.

Caulkins said that the state has made attempts to improve conditions at the DCFS, but that change has been difficult. 

"This is probably one of the most difficult departments in the state government to reform because of the legal responsibilities they have and the supervision they’ve been entrusted with," Caulkins said. "We’ve taken steps to better compensate case workers, better train and retain them, but there still seems to be a lot of issues in the management of the organization."

Caulkins pointed out Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker's notable silence on the issue saying, "He’s going to reappoint the director, primarily because no one else wants the job. Without significant reforms and the ability to change the hiring and firing practices there, I’m not sure how we’re ever going to fix the agency."

Caulkins believes that the DCFS needs external oversight to increase transparency and hold the agency accountable in cases of abuse.

"At the caseworker level there are many people trying to do the best they can, but I think there needs to be an outside advocate that families can go to when they feel they are not being properly treated. I’ve also advocated for a fund families can use for legal defenses in their legal battles with the agency," Caulkins said. "The issues that make the news are these cases of children not being properly placed but the issues run much deeper than that." 

According to statistics recently made public by the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian, as recently as in 2021 there were 84 instances of children left locked up for prolonged periods of time with at least seven of them remaining in custody to this day.

"Every child, every family deserves proper care and attention. It’s disturbing reading the reports about what’s happening there," Caulkins said.