Marion County Sheriff Kevin Cripps and State’s Attorney Tim Hudspeth say Marion County residents are unfairly paying the cost of placement mistakes by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The two county officials say the expenses center around a juvenile placed by DCFS at the One Hope United facility in Centralia in March of last year and kept there despite multiple arrests and delays in a sentencing hearing because DCFS is not prepared to proceed. The 17-year-old is awaiting sentencing on three separate counts of burglary and two more counts of battery.
Cripps says so far DCFS has not been willing to help pay the expense of holding the juvenile in custody. As a result, county residents are footing a $300 a day bill to house the out-of-area juvenile in a detention facility.
“A child has been in custody for 38 days right now,” Cripps said. “We’re looking at $10,000 probably, somewhere close to that right now. Before this is all over with, if the child is in custody until the next court date, Marion County citizens are on the hook for nearly $30,000. It’s absolutely absurd that we are even in this kind of situation. I am doing everything I can to get the attention of those in Springfield or other community leaders that could assist with this.”
Cripps explains how the problem started.
“DCFS took this child into custody and made the decision to send that child to One Hope United in Centralia, which is a minimum-security facility. This child obviously needed a maximum-security facility, or way more services than what One Hope United could give them. Under no circumstances am I necessarily blaming One Hope United for this, other than the fact that they probably shouldn’t be accepting kids they know can’t handle this either, but that’s between them and the state.”
In his letter to state officials, the State’s Attorney notes they are now eight months from the juvenile’s most recent criminal charge and nearly a year into the juveniles’ issues at One Hope United. Despite that, Hudspeth says DCFS apparently needs additional time to explore other placement options while Marion County spends $300 per day to house the minor who is a ward of the state. He asks in the letter: “Why do we still not have any answers as to other placement options? Does it really take 10 months to exhaust placement options?”
Hudspeth says it is frustrating that Marion County taxpayers are footing the entire bill for housing minors in detention for placement mistakes made by DCFS, issues he says are created by higher-ups and administrators in Springfield and Chicago, not the workers in local field offices who live in the communities affected by these poor decisions.
State Representative Charlie Meier has taken up the county’s cause and is pushing to get answers from DCFS.
