CAPITOL NEWS DAILY The top stories of the day in state government coverage from Capitol News Illinois. | | For several months, Beth Hundsdorfer from our team has been working with Molly Parker from ProPublica and Lee Enterprises Midwest on an investigation into the state's mental health facilities.
Below is our first installment of that investigative series, a look into a culture of cruelty at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois, as well as a companion story about how long that culture has been in place.
It took months of Freedom of Information Act requests and interviews with current and former employees and advocates, as well as residents and their guardians, to reveal a systemic pattern of patient abuse, neglect, humiliation and exploitation.
Their first two stories are below, and they are well worth the read.
We also have coverage of recent state announcements and a move by Texas to bus migrants to Chicago.
| | A disabled young patient was sent to get treatment. He was abused instead. And he wasn't the last.
As Blaine Reichard rose from a breakfast table at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois, a worker ordered him to pull up his sagging pants.
A 24-year-old man with developmental disabilities, Reichard was accustomed to workers at the state-run residential facility telling him what to do. But this time he didn't obey.
"I'm a gangsta! This is how we do it where I am from!" responded Reichard, who, despite his street-tough defiance, still slept with a teddy bear.
Investigators who later came to the scene of the 2014 incident heard various versions of what happened next. But multiple witnesses told the Illinois State Police that shortly after this exchange, Reichard was taken to the floor, held down by four mental health techs and repeatedly punched in the face, according to a 700-page state police investigation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Reichard cursed and spat, trying to fight back. His resistance was met with more blows, according to witness accounts. Reichard, whose diagnoses include autism, would later tell police it felt like he was hit 100 times.
Multiple employees, including a doctor, told investigators that Reichard's injuries were the worst they'd ever seen. One tech told police she vomited at the sight of his injured face.
Located about 120 miles southeast of St. Louis, Choate serves people with the most profound disabilities in the state. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division had cited Choate for failing to protect residents from physical and psychological abuse and other harm. The federal agency stopped short of suing the state of Illinois — a step it has taken against other states — and closed its investigation in 2013, saying in a report to Congress that Illinois officials had made adequate improvements.
The Reichard beating happened the next year, just before Christmas. While it is one of the most egregious examples of abuse of a Choate resident in a decade, a monthslong investigation by Capitol News Illinois, Lee Enterprises and ProPublica has found that the incident is one of many instances of mistreatment at the rural facility managed by the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Beth Hundsdorfer partnered with a reporter from ProPublica and Lee Enterprises in a monthslong investigation of the state-run facility. | | Culture of cruelty persists despite decades of warnings
Over a year ago, the security chief at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois sent an email to the head of the state agency that operates the facility, warning her of dangerous conditions inside.
"What I am presently seeing occur at Choate and hearing occur at other facilities concerns me more than it has my entire career," Barry Smoot, a decades-long IDHS employee, wrote to Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou on May 26, 2021. Among the recommendations he wanted to make: that cameras be installed inside the facility.
Hou responded that same day, agreeing to meet.
But no meeting took place. Instead, Hou suggested Smoot start by sharing his concerns with her chief of staff, Ryan Croke, and the director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities, Allison Stark, according to records of the exchange. But those meetings never happened, either. (Stark left the agency in July.)
It would take more than a year, and some high-profile arrests related to abuse at the facility, before the agency unveiled a plan to address poor conditions at Choate. This June, Hou sent a letter addressed to "stakeholders" in which she publicly acknowledged safety concerns at Choate for the first time. The agency, she said, would be rolling out a series of reforms in response to "serious allegations about resident abuse and neglect" at the facility located at the edge of the small town of Anna.
The reform plan, she wrote, includes hiring four additional security officers, installing 10 surveillance cameras on the facility grounds, having staff undergo new training and increasing the presence of senior IDHS officials inside the residential units. Her letter referenced safety issues that arose "in the last year" but offered no other specifics.
Parker and Hundsdorfer also took a look at what's being done to curb abuse at the facility and how long the problem has been ongoing. | | | Texas begins busing migrants to Chicago At least 60 migrants arrived in Chicago on Wednesday on buses from Texas as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's ongoing policy to send undocumented immigrants to so-called "sanctuary cities."
But Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, both Democrats, say the new arrivals are welcome in Illinois, and they are vowing to make sure the new arrivals receive essential services.
Peter Hancock covered the news. | | | Capitol Briefs: State announces energy assistance, violence prevention grants, EV rebates The state this week announced available funding for energy assistance, a new round of EV rebates and violence prevention grants, and announced it received a federal waiver to pump more ethanol for the next two weeks.
Jerry Nowicki recaps recent announcements here. | | | | |
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