Will County Gazette

Rep. David Welter (R-Morris) joined House colleagues Reps. Tom Weber (Lake Villa), Steve Reick (R-Woodstock), and Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont) at a press conference March 17 to demand changes at The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

"In Fiscal Year 2021 there was a staggering 41,970 children indicated as abused or neglected in the DCFS system," Welter said. "Thirteen thousand, nine hundred and sixty children were indicated as re-abused. Re-abused! Every year since the governor was elected that number has grown. Last year in DCFS's system, there were 20 deaths attributed to abuse and 68 deaths due to neglect. Four thousand, six hundred and twenty-two children were indicated as sexual abuse victims. Among those were 54 indicated as victims of human trafficking. That is not what leadership looks like. This should be a top priority for the legislature right here in Springfield and it should be a top priority for Gov. Pritzker. We need to act now. We must demand full transparency. That is what is so important. Decisions that are being made by this governor's administration are passing by with limited to no transparency."

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith has been charged with contempt of court six times for keeping children in psychiatric facilities long after they'd been cleared to be released. According to The Chicago Sun-Times, Smith has been fined $1,000 a day, but soon, the agency can be fined $2,000 a day if it doesn't take necessary measures and place children in appropriate homes. 

"In the more than 30 years that I've been practicing in Juvenile Court, I cannot recall a single time when a judge has held the DCFS director — or any high-level DCFS official — in contempt of court," longtime Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said, according to the Sun-Times. "Nor can I recall a single time when a judge in Juvenile Court has ordered fines in this manner."

The most recent contempt of court charge came due to a 16-year-old girl who was shuffled between foster homes, hospitals and shelters 25 times.

 "To give a flavor of DCFS's extreme placement shortage crisis, last year alone DCFS forced 356 of its children to languish in locked psychiatric hospitals unnecessarily for an average of 55 days — nearly two months — each," Golbert said, according to the Sun-Times. "This adds up to more than 50 years of wasted children's lives in just a year." 

In another incident, DCFS dismissed allegations of abuse a month before 19-month-old Sophia Faye Davis was allegedly beaten to death by her father's girlfriend.  

 A spokesperson from the Pritzker administration has blamed the previous administration, claiming it passed on a “hollowed out and underfunded” department. “It should come as no surprise that members of the GOP are once again using our state’s most vulnerable as pawns in their political games,” Pritzker press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said, according to NBC 25