Toddlers wander expansive hallways looking for their parents as adults pass by indifferently. Some of the children try to fall asleep on stone benches and floors.
To some this may seem like something out of a Charles Dickens’ novel about street urchins in 19th Century London. But it’s not. It’s the Cook County courthouse in Markham, 1993.
“These children are just teeming through this courthouse,” said Sheila Murphy, the presiding judge at Markham, who requested the county build a special children’s room in the courthouse. “Seeing these kids asleep on the granite floors-well, it is pathetic.”
For years, no one in the courthouse seemed to know what to do with small children. Parents, mostly mothers with no day care, arrived in courtrooms as plaintiffs, victims, defendants or witnesses with nowhere to put their children. Judges, unable to conduct their business with noisy children in the rooms, often sent the children into the hallway. There, when the children were not watched by frantic volunteers, they wandered unsupervised.
The creation in October of a special domestic violence courtroom did not help matters, because it concentrates most of the children on the first floor in a high-traffic area. Murphy tried to set up a children’s area in an open corridor, but it was difficult to keep an eye on the children and officials were concerned about the youngsters falling and hurting themselves on the stone floors or donated wooden chairs.
But starting next month, the county plans to begin construction of the children’s room in the first-floor corridor, set off by windowed walls and carpeted.
Bill Hoffman, the county’s deputy director of capital planning and director of facilities, said County Board President Richard Phelan has authorized about $25,000 for the work. He said construction will begin about mid-December and should be done in about six weeks.
Similar rooms are not yet planned for other suburban courtrooms, because, Hoffman said, “Frankly, no one else has asked.”
A group dedicated to taking care of children, Our Children and the Court Foundation, will supervise the room at no cost to the county, Hoffman said.
The group is looking for donations for the children, including diapers, stuffed animals, toys and furniture.
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