Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is not allowing WBEZ to examine the state’s juvenile prisons.

For four months WBEZ has been trying to negotiate some access to the prisons. Last week, Quinn’s staff told us there would be none. We said we would report that denial. Later that day, we were offered a single tour of one of the better facilities, an offer WBEZ accepted, but an offer which would not allow the public meaningful insight into the hundred million dollar department that has care of some of the most troubled and troubling kids in Illinois. Bob Reed is the governor’s spokesman. He says they’re working on their own review of the facilities.

REED: The scrutiny continues and the scrutiny will be ongoing and our administration is providing that scrutiny.

The Department of Juvenile Justice was created in 2006 and even its director agrees that many of the challenges have gone unsolved in the three and a half years since.