Editorial Roundup: Illinois
Champaign News-Gazette. August 20, 2023.
Editorial: Despite state’s call to action, not much has changed
Two months after an investigation revealed systemic abuse of developmentally disabled patients at a state facility in downstate Anna, problems apparently continue.
Grace Hou, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services, promised an all-out effort to improve the situation there.
But two developments raise huge concerns. Hou initially insisted that the incumbent facility director was the best person equipped to oversee a fix because of his familiarity with operations now. More recently, Hou reversed herself, removing Bryant Davis, the director of the Choate Mental Health and Development Center since 2014.
Hou replaced Davis with another administrator who has worked at Choate for about six months.
Even more disturbing is a report from an outside advocacy agency — Equip for Equality — that continued to scrutinize patient treatment and concluded that little has changed.
Equip for Equality found conditions at Choate to be so bad that “no patients with developmental disabilities should remain at Choate.”
That is a striking recommendation, one sure to raise policy as well as political concerns. But it’s not as shocking as it might first appear.
State officials previously announced plans to transfer at least half of Choate’s 235 patients within three years.
Transfers might not be much of a solution. Investigative reporting by Lee Enterprises, ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois found that problems like those at Choate are “common throughout the statewide system.”
Perhaps that’s why state promises of a commitment to “the highest-quality care” at Choate and elsewhere appear to be empty rhetoric issued in response to embarrassing headlines.
Workers at developmental facilities obviously have difficult jobs caring for their patients. But it cannot be too much to ask for an abuse-free environment.
In calling for the transfer of Choate’s patients elsewhere, Equip for Equality maintained that keeping them there is “antithetical to their well being” because they receive poor care and are subject to abuse and not provided rehabilitative services.
Frankly, it sounds as if patients there are simply warehoused, creating conditions that lead to patient/staff conflicts.
Patients told investigators they are reluctant to report physical abuse for fear of their caretakers retaliating against them.
At the same time, the state’s earlier investigation said employees cover up for each other by not reporting misconduct or denying that anything inappropriate occurred. Conversely, employees disturbed by what they’ve seen keep quiet out of fear of retribution from administrators or their fellow employees.
This disgrace to the state is showing dangerous signs of being intractable. But the status quo cannot be allowed to stand.
Human Services officials are under the gun. But so, too, is Gov. J.B. Pritzker — it is, after all, his department, run by his appointees. The governor has the power to send a powerful message to those down the line, and he should do so.
If that causes him problems with the union that represents Choate employees, so be it. Decency and compassion require far more positive action than what’s occurred since the June report from the state inspector general.
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Chicago Sun-Times. August 17, 2023.
Editorial: Lawyers should be present when police interrogate minors
The interrogation process for minors will likely take longer if lawyers must be present. But that’s preferable to the consequences of a child’s false confession.
Young children, particularly teenagers, might feel grown-up, but their brains are still developing and they process and navigate stressful situations much differently than adults.
So being arrested and interrogated by law enforcement can be particularly scary. That’s especially true when minors are taught to obey authority figures and may not fully comprehend the seriousness of the situation, a brief on juvenile interrogations by Fair and Just Prosecution, a network of local prosecutors, points out.
Kids will often say what they think they need to say, as quickly as they can, so they can go back home to their parents.
For these and other reasons, the presence of a lawyer should be mandatory when juveniles are interrogated by police, as some Illinois lawmakers have proposed.
Research shows that 90% of children taken into custody waive their Miranda rights. Or, they might decline an attorney, as a 15-year-old boy did before confessing to a shooting he didn’t commit in Waukegan.
The boy, who was questioned in the north suburb last year, was told he had a right to a lawyer — but the officer interrogating him about the shooting of a Dollar General store clerk also mentioned that it’d be awhile before one would show up, video footage reveals.
In fact, the boy was out of town when the clerk was shot — yet police were able to wrangle a false confession out of him in less than an hour.
The teen’s ordeal, which WBEZ’s Chip Mitchell has reported on extensively, has prompted discussion among Illinois lawmakers of a bill requiring a lawyer to be present for police interrogations of those under 18.
Law enforcement groups don’t think having a lawyer in the room is needed, arguing that an attorney can keep a child from talking and that parents, who must be informed about arrests, have the responsibility to hire an attorney.
But what about the parent who is too overwhelmed or distraught to manage the situation? What happens when a parent can’t be tracked down?
A mother and father’s support is crucial, as the FJP’s brief notes, but they alone “are not a sufficient safeguard, and are no substitute for legal counsel.”
Minors under 15 who are charged with murder or sexual assault are now automatically assigned a lawyer under Illinois law. Expanding that practice to all suspects under 18 who are undergoing interrogations is the right next step.
Consider this: Among individuals who were later exonerated for crimes that took place before they turned 14, 86% had falsely confessed, according to the FJP brief.
The interrogation process for minors will likely take more time if lawyers must be present. But that’s preferable by far than the consequences — in time, money and emotional distress — of a child’s false confession.
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Arlington Heights Daily Herald. August 18, 2023.
Editorial: State’s high court provides a victory for gun control, but the real test is yet to come
From the beginning, there was little chance the Illinois Supreme Court would overturn the state’s ban on assault-style weapons adopted during the spring legislative session. It was highly unlikely the partisan-oriented court made up of five Democrats and two Republicans would invalidate legislation approved easily by the General Assembly, both of whose chambers are controlled by Democrats, and signed with much flourish by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
So, when the court’s ruling came down last Friday, it was welcome news to those of us yearning for tougher gun restrictions, especially on weapons whose only purpose is to kill as many humans as possible as quickly as possible. But it was not exactly a relief.
First, it was interesting to note that while the state court’s ruling generally followed expected political patterns, one Democrat joined the Republican dissenters. Justice Mary K. O’Brien’s reasoning seems based more on concerns the law carved out exceptions for certain individuals, such as retired police officers, than on questions about whether restrictions by themselves are unconstitutional, but it still suggested weakness in the law.
More relevant, though, is the fact that numerous federal lawsuits protesting that the law violates Second Amendment rights remain to be decided. It’s in those venues, possibly leading all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the fate of the law will finally be decided.
Robert Bevis, owner of Law Weapons & Supply in Naperville, whose suit against a Naperville weapons ban is among those awaiting federal scrutiny, described the situation bluntly in an interview with our Susan Sarkauskas.
“The only way we’re going to win this,” Bevis said, “is in the federal court.”
The attorney for state Rep. Dan Caulkins, who along with other downstate plaintiffs brought the suit against the Illinois law, also told reporters that an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Second Amendment grounds is still on the table.
Considering the high court’s 2022 decision upholding the right to carry weapons in public, Illinoisans siding with Bevis and Caulkins have reason for hope. But, thanks to the state Supreme Court ruling, so do those who believe there is a common-sense approach to gun ownership that doesn’t make mass killings an acceptable hazard in American society.
“One reason it’s so important to defend our law is it establishes the groundwork for other states and for a (national) ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines,” John Schmidt, of Gun Violence Prevention PAC-Illinois, told the Chicago Sun-Times, adding, “If we can win in federal court, that’s a critical step.”
For now, we have a ban in place and that, too, is a critical step. Let’s hope it remains critical enough to pass muster at the next level.
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