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Kids in juvenile jail tell of fight rooms

ANNIE SWEENEY AND ABDON PALLASCH / Chicago Sun Tines | October 6 2005

Gladiator rooms. No woofing. Box it out.

The slang varies, but teens who stayed at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center are describing the same thing -- staff members letting or even encouraging the kids to settle disputes with a fistfight.

Detention center officials say they have never heard of such a practice.

But allegations of staff-sanctioned fighting emerged in interviews the Sun-Times conducted in recent weeks with three former residents, and now the American Civil Liberties Union confirms its staff heard similar reports during random visits this summer.

One former resident, who is now 20 and was inside the detention center seven times between 1999 and 2001, said when certain staff members saw residents fighting, they would send the kids into a room with instructions.

ACLU interviews residents

"Room 18 -- we called that the gladiator room. You got problems, that door's always open. Walk in there, handle ya'll's business. Come back out, shut up and watch TV."

County officials last month called in national experts to evaluate the center in the wake of Sun-Times stories about charges of choke-holds and other excessive discipline being used on residents; inexperienced yet high-paid managers having political or family ties to Cook County Board President John Stroger; and counselors getting extensive overtime.

The three former residents who were interviewed about the fight rooms did not want their names used, and all have histories of trouble with the law or their families.

One who was at the detention center for three weeks last spring and is now 17 told of a staff member who would send residents into a bathroom to fight.

"The no-woof policy," the resident said. "Basically if you're talking s---, you take it to the bathroom. And you box it out."

ACLU staff who have been conducting dozens of random interviews at the detention center at 1100 S. Hamilton have heard several "variations" of the allegation, said Sarah Schriber, ACLU staff attorney. In one case, the staff allegedly handed out boxing gloves to the residents, she said.

"The ways in which staff [allegedly] instigates fights or lets fights continue is pretty amazing," Schriber said.

Politics interferes?

The center's superintendent, Jerry Robinson, said he had never heard of such a practice, but he is talking to staff about it.

"I have never seen it or heard it," Robinson said. "Most definitely I will be talking to the supervisors to let them know ... to look into it and to make sure nothing like that is happening."

Cook County Board member Michael Quigley said he has heard the allegations as well, and said they are one more reason the detention center needs to be run independently of politics by people who are experts in the field.

"Do I know for sure it happens? No. At this point do I believe it happens? Yes. ... They must take the politics out of managing these young children's lives," he said.

The allegations surfaced about the same time the ACLU sent a letter to the county with the names of five staff members who have repeatedly surfaced in interviews with residents alleging physical and verbal harassment.

Robinson said he had the letter and was "looking into it."

Physical force a concern

Also on Tuesday, two independent monitors -- appointed after the ACLU filed a 1999 lawsuit on behalf of residents who complained of problems ranging from abusive staff to filthy conditions -- released reports that raised even more concerns.

Benjamin Wolf, associate legal director for the ACLU, said the reports show excessive physical force remains a concern, as does the lack of a uniform way of reporting incidents.

There was good news. Visiting rooms and lockers have been installed; Robinson has staggered the start of school for the 450 residents; and there are plans to open two special units, one for aggressive residents and another for those with mental health problems.

One of the reports also collected data -- just now made available by center officials -- to start charting where the problems are inside the center.

"I appreciate [the] good work in starting to raise these questions," Wolf said. "But I am troubled the people running the facility didn't look at these patterns years ago."

 

 

 

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