BH v. Johnson
Decision Date | 30 May 1989 |
Docket Number | No. 88 C 5599.,88 C 5599. |
Citation | 715 F. Supp. 1387 |
Parties | B.H., C.H., J.E. and C.Z., individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. Gordon JOHNSON, Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Defendant. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED
Michael L. Brody, Schiff, Hardin & Waite and Benjamin S. Wolf, Roger Baldwin Foundation of ACLU, Inc., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs.
Susan Getzendanner and Christina M. Tchen, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Chicago, Ill., for defendant.
This case comes before us on defendant's motion to dismiss. We grant the motion in part.
For purposes of this motion, we accept all well-pleaded facts as true and draw reasonable inferences in favor of plaintiffs. Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-02, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). Named plaintiffs, B.H., C.H., J.E., C.Z., E.G., O.G., S.G., C.G., P.G., and A.G., represent a class of "all persons who are or will be in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and who have been or will be placed somewhere other than with their parents" (hereinafter collectively referred to as "plaintiffs"). See Order 88 C 5599 (N.D.Ill. Feb. 22, 1989) ( ).
Defendant Gordon Johnson ("Johnson") is the director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS"). He is sued only in his official capacity. DCFS is an Illinois state agency responsible for the welfare of children whose parents are unwilling or unable to care for them. Amended Complaint at ¶ 10. As of the date of filing of the complaint, 15,000 children were in the custody of the DCFS. Am.Compl. at ¶ 9(a). When a child is removed from his or her parents, a "follow-up" caseworker is assigned to take responsibility for the child. Am.Compl. at ¶ 11. According to DCFS procedures, "the follow-up caseworker is to work with the family, arrange for appropriate services — for example, homemakers, counselors, therapists, and day care — and oversee the child's welfare including his or her medical needs, education, and, if the child is not immediately returned home, placement in a foster home, group home, or institutional care facility." Id.
The facts, as alleged in the complaint, paint a bleak and Dickensian picture of life under the auspices of the DCFS. Plaintiffs assert that there is little hope that children in the custody of the DCFS will receive services to which they are entitled. Id. at ¶ 12. Of the approximately 15,000 children in defendant's custody, more than 4,000 have been prevented from returning to their parents for two years or more. Am. Compl. at ¶ 21(a). As of June 30, 1986, more than 4,300 children in DCFS care had been in six or more placements. Id. at 21(b). These placements usually involve extended stays in mental hospitals, detention centers, group homes, shelters, and other institutions. Some children are kept in mental institutions long after professionals responsible for their treatment have declared them ready for discharge. Id. at 21(c). The institutions in which plaintiffs are "warehoused" do not offer adequate educational opportunities or, indeed, activities of any sort. Plaintiffs claim that the behavior of the children who reside in these institutions is controlled by brutal physical discipline. Id. These institutions are incapable of serving the needs of children and often cause serious damage to their physical and emotional well-being. In one DCFS shelter in May 1988, an eight-year-old girl was raped by two twelve-year-old boys. Id. at ¶ 16.
The institutional disrepair of DCFS is illustrated by the experience of the named plaintiffs in this case. For convenience, we allow the complaint to tell its own story:
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