A federal judge has ordered immediate reforms at the Mary Davis Juvenile Detention Home, finding that excessive use of confinement at the Galesburg facility likely has violated the constitutional rights of youth detained there.
In a Sept. 30 ruling, Judge Colleen Lawless of the Central District of Illinois granted class certification in a lawsuit filed in May 2024 on behalf of current and former residents. The plaintiffs, who are represented by the ACLU of Illinois, claim that youth endure abusive, extended solitary confinement at the Mary Davis Home despite repeated non-compliance warnings from the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice to end the practice.
Lawless also granted a preliminary injunction that blocks the use of extended solitary confinement at the Mary Davis Home and limits isolation to short-term, emergency situations.
“The youth we represented at MDH spent days, weeks, and even months at a time in solitary confinement,” said Kevin Fee, legal director at the ACLU of Illinois, in a release. “We are grateful that the court has stepped in to block the cruel practice of locking a young person up for up to 24 hours a day without any break. It is a great day for our clients.”
The Mary Davis Home is one of 15 county juvenile detention centers in Illinois. It is affiliated with Knox County and is audited annually by the Department of Juvenile Justice, but it is under the jurisdiction of the Ninth Judicial Circuit. The facility receives funding from the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts, the Illinois State Board of Education, Knox County, and other counties that house youth there.
Youth as young as 11 years old are detained there but the majority are between the ages of 14 and 18. Some are serving sentences in the facility and others are housed there while awaiting sentencing in the court system.
The federal court found the use of extended solitary confinement can cause lasting harm to children. Lawless noted in the ruling that the defendants in the case “have been deliberately indifferent to that risk.” Those named in the lawsuit were Raymond Cavanaugh, chief judge of the Ninth Judicial Circuit; Wendi Steck, administrator of the Mary Davis Home; Bridget Pletz, director of court services; and Knox County.
The county maintains it does not have oversight of operations at the facility.
“As the federal district court noted in its ruling and the ACLU has publicly acknowledged in court filings, Knox County does not have any involvement in day-to-day operations inside the Mary Davis Home,” Knox County Board Chair Jared Hawkinson said in a statement to TSPR. “Instead, the County’s role is limited to approving the budget, contracting for medical care and education services, and paying some employee salaries. As required by state law, the County will continue to provide this support to the Chief Judge and Mary Davis Home administrators.”
Lawless also directed Mary Davis Home officials to, within 30 days, create a plan for emergency mental health intervention for youth identified as being at risk of suicide or self-harm. Those children cannot be placed in solitary confinement and must receive prompt, appropriate care.
In addition, the injunction requires that young people at the facility continue to have access to education, prohibits retaliation against youth who file grievances, and establishes oversight to ensure compliance with the court’s order.
In a release, Fee said other juvenile detention facilities should take note of the ruling.
“Like the Mary Davis Home, other facilities should take care to ensure that young people are not forced to spend long periods of time in a concrete box. The consensus is clear: this practice causes immense and lasting harm to young people and has no place in Illinois,” Fee said.
The Department of Juvenile Justice updated its standards for county juvenile detention centers in 2021, marking the first revisions since 1998. At the time, the Mary Davis Home still strip-searched all youth during intake as a safety precaution.
The facility has made improvements in recent years to be in compliance with the new standards and improve staffing levels. But it has remained out of compliance in the standards for discipline due to use of confinement in each annual audit under the new standards.
Police have responded to riots in the facility twice in the last year and half. In March 2024, eight staff members were injured, with some requiring hospital treatment. Two juveniles were treated at the scene in that incident. In June of this year, four staff members and five juveniles were injured in what police described as a disturbance that escalated into a riot.
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