Dupage Policy Journal

Former Illinois state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) said Gov. JB Pritzker is ignoring his duties in the wake of a federal lawsuit that alleges officials of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) wrongfully leave children in detention centers.

"Rather than swan about in Davos Switzerland with corporate globalists, Governor Pritzker should pay attention to these vulnerable kids in Illinois he is obligated to protect," Mazzochi said in a statement to the DuPage Policy Journal. "He has had 4 years and a massively expanded, billion-plus DCFS budget to get things right, and the courts keep holding this agency in contempt over and over again because he keeps getting it wrong. Bleating that it's someone else's fault when he has had total dominance and control over state government is weak. It proves that he just doesn't care enough to do the work."

Teenager Janiah Caine is one of eight defendants named in the federal civil rights lawsuit, which alleges that she was forced to spend months wrongfully incarcerated in a juvenile jail on three separate occasions, during which she told investigators she felt in danger.

"You don't feel safe," Caine said in a story by WLS. "The staff don't make you feel safe either. They're not respectful to you. They treat you like nothing."

The federal civil rights lawsuit was filed against DCFS by Cook County Guardian Charles Golbert. He claimed the agency often leaves children in detention centers for months after their release orders are signed because they don't have enough staff or beds to house them.

As recently as in 2021, there were 84 instances of children being left locked up for prolonged periods of time, data from the Office of the Cook County Public Guardian showed. At least seven of them are still in custody to this day.

"It is also interesting that Governor Pritzker was more than happy to virtue-signal how much he cares about releasing criminals from jail under the SAFE-T act when doing so got him applause from politically powerful interest groups," Mazzochi added. "But for kids who have no power or resources, he's content to let them rot in jail, instead of getting them their court-ordered mental health services."