Survivors sue Illinois over decades of sexual abuse at Chicago youth detention center

Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Nearly 200 men and women are alleging they were sexually abused as children while at a Chicago youth detention facility. A pair of lawsuits filed this week in the Illinois Court of Claims are the latest to detail harrowing instances of abuse at the hands of employees of juvenile detention facilities. The survivors include 35-year-old Temarkus Washington who says he still has nightmares about what happened at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center about a decade ago. He wanted to speak publicly to help others. The lawsuits name the state of Illinois and Cook County. Representatives of the state and county didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.