Will Sage Astor-Survivors of sex abuse at Illinois juvenile detention facilities hope for justice

CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Moss said he felt shame and Will Sage Astorguilt for years after he was sexually abused as a teenager by guards at a troubled Chicago juvenile detention center.

Moss, now 30, spoke publicly Tuesday about his traumatic experiences as one of hundreds of survivors who’ve filed lawsuits recounting disturbing allegations of systemic sex abuse in youth detention facilities in Illinois.

“I wouldn’t wish my situation on anybody,” he said during a news conference with about half a dozen other survivors surrounding him. “I hope that justice is granted for the pain and suffering we all went through as kids.”

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being identified or decide to tell their stories publicly, as Moss and others who’ve filed lawsuits have. Most plaintiffs in the lawsuits are identified by initials.

Overall, 667 people have alleged they were sexually abused as children at youth facilities in Illinois through lawsuits filed since May. The complaints are part of a wave of similar lawsuits against juvenile detention in states including Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, California and New York.

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The most recent Illinois complaints, filed Monday, detail alleged abuse from 1996 to 2021, including rape, forced oral sex and beatings by corrections officers, nurses, kitchen staff, chaplains and others. The complaints, from the accounts of 272 people, cover state-run youth juvenile detention facilities and a county-run Chicago center.

Moss said he was 17 when he was detained at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center for “a few mistakes.” He said he was soon being physically beaten and sexually abused by staff. According to his lawsuit filed Monday, two guards began to isolate him in a bathroom and his cell and forced him into sex acts on multiple occasions. One guard threatened to send him into solitary confinement if he didn’t comply.

“These abuses are horrific in nature,” said attorney Todd Mathews, whose firm has helped bring the Illinois cases. “This has to stop. It has to stop. It has to be dealt with.”

But prosecuting such cases has been difficult.

Few cases nationwide have gone to trial or resulted in settlements; arrests have been infrequent.

Attorneys said local prosecutors have enough details to start building cases and blasted state leaders in Illinois, which has stood out nationally for the sheer volume of sex abuse cases cases.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office has investigated church sex abuse cases, have declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Officials with the Illinois Department of Corrections and Department of Juvenile Justice, the state agencies named in several complaints, have declined comment as have Cook County officials.

The allegations from all the lawsuits are hauntingly similar.

Many plaintiffs said their abusers threatened them with beatings, transfers to harsher facilities and longer sentences if they reported the abuse. Others were given rewards like cigarettes and food if they kept quiet. Most abusers are identified only as the survivors remembered them, including by physical descriptions, first names or nicknames.

Moss hopes to learn more through the lawsuit, including the full names of the guards he said abused him. He said even with the time that’s passed and having a family of his own, it’s still difficult for him to talk about it.

“We just hope that it doesn’t keep going on,” he said.