David Jackson – Page 14

Youths make decorations out of construction paper during art class.

Violence, runaways a problem at residential centers across the U.S.

August 18, 2019 at 6:24 p.m.

Six years after the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that youths were beaten and abused inside residential treatment centers across the country, the mistreatment and violence continue amid inconsistent oversight...

Residential centers call police to discipline youths for spitting, threats

August 18, 2019 at 6:24 p.m.

Placed in a Wisconsin residential treatment center for youths with behavioral and mental health problems, the teenager ran away for a night to visit his girlfriend. He returned the next...

A survivor of childhood abuse, Keyona Laws had already engaged in prostitution before entering Lawrence Hall. But she hoped the facility would offer a haven.

Youths drawn into prostitution while living at residential facilities

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

The central Illinois truck stop was chilly and dark on the November morning last year when Mary Bohanan was arrested for prostitution. Handcuffed in a Bloomington police squad car, the...

At Indian Oaks Academy, Meisha Singleton was attacked by peers, repeatedly bullied and taunted, government records show.

Angry lawmakers vow action on problems with residential care for troubled youths

August 18, 2019 at 6:23 p.m.

Public officials on Friday reacted angrily to an ongoing Tribune investigation that found juvenile state wards were assaulted and sexually abused at government-funded residential treatment centers throughout Illinois. Gov.-elect Bruce...

On a recent morning, a moldy mattress was among the items in the abandoned building near Indian Oaks. Smashed beer bottles and cans of Silly String littered the ground.

Troubled youths find perilous refuge in a decaying former asylum

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

The youths living at Indian Oaks Academy knew staff members were forbidden to follow them into the hulking abandoned building next door. With its crumbling walls, shattered windows and collapsing...

Sexually traumatized youths report new abuse at Indian Oaks

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

The 19-year-old lay awake at night, dreading the moment when his roommate would call to him from the bunk below. There, in the dark, the roommate would utter his name,...

Foster mother KaRon Brooks sought psychiatric services for a boy she had adopted who was placed at Lawrence Hall when he was 9. During one visit, she said, the boy had stitches in one hand and clothes smelling of urine.

At Lawrence Hall, vulnerable kids terrorized, learn life of crime

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

One teenager raped a 50-year-old woman as she walked to the "L" stop at dawn. A second was arrested nine times in one year on charges that included theft, property...

Children attacked, abused at taxpayer-funded living centers

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

In residential treatment centers across Illinois, children are assaulted, sexually abused and running away by the thousands — yet state officials fail to act on reports of harm and continue...

Cleanna Parker-Lewis sits on the front porch of her aunt's house with her cousins. She helps with child care and in her spare time sings and writes "about the struggles of what I go through."

10 years in residential treatment: One girl’s story

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

Cleanna Parker-Lewis came of age in Illinois residential treatment facilities. The state Department of Children and Family Services took protective custody of her when she was only 6 months old,...

MsWhitney Holt plays with her daughter at her apartment in Elk Grove Village. In one incident at Rock River, Holt recalled, "out of nowhere they came up and attacked me from behind."

We felt caged: Seven stories of Rock River Academy

August 18, 2019 at 6:21 p.m.

In its investigation of Rock River Academy in Rockford, the Tribune examined thousands of pages of confidential juvenile case files and other records but also interviewed 20 former residents for...

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