(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Roughly 200 people have filed a lawsuit against Cook County and the State, claiming they were sexually assaulted while held in a juvenile detention center.
They were between 9 and 17-years-old when they were held at the Cook County Juvenile Center, once called the Audy Home on Chicago's Near West Side, and were awaiting trial.
CBS Chicago reported several former detainees spoke Tuesday about what they say was systemic abuse that was silenced by those in charge.
“I want to change the world for the next generation, and I want to make sure that what happened to me never happens to anyone else,” one man said.
The lawsuit alleges conditions were atrocious and sexual abuse, systemtic.
A settlement to a 1999 lawsuit that made similar claims ordered the County to improve conditions and appointed an administrator when a federal court found it wasn’t happening.
It calls for the detention center to be shut down.
Governor Pritzker’s office and Cook County declined comment on the pending litigation.
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