Criticism and the Promise of Reform at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center

Criticism and the Promise of Reform at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center

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Every few months or so over the last couple of years, the Juvenile Detention Center has faced a new round of criticism.

Today, The John Howard Association, a prison rights advocacy groureleasing its own report in keeping with previous findings.

The thrust of this report and others is that leadership of the center needs to be de-politicized.

p is Larry Suffredin is a Cook County Commissioner.

He another member of the Board are backing state legislation that would do just that, by transferring control of the center to the Chief Judge of Cook County.

Suffredin: And the chief judge is where the complaints and things can funnel and where decisions can be made.  You cannot run an institution like the JTDC by a board.  And the president has too many responsibilities so I think that he’s actually too distracted to be able to deal with all these.

Juvenile Justice advocates say the change will go along way to solve problems like abuse by staff, overcrowding, and corruption.

The legislation is expected to face little opposition in the General Assembly.

I’m Sonari Glinton, Chicago Public Radio.