At a Remote Mental Health Facility, a Culture of Cruelty Persists Despite Decades of Warnings – By Molly Parker (Lee Enterprises Midwest) and Beth Hunsdorfer (Capitol News Illinois) / Sept 2, 2022
Federal and state officials have urged reforms at the rural facility for people with mental and developmental disabilities. But the state-run center still has more allegations of abuse and neglect than any other in Illinois.
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Over a year ago, the security chief at Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois sent an email to the head of the state agency that operates the facility, warning her of dangerous conditions inside.
“What I am presently seeing occur at Choate and hearing occur at other facilities concerns me more than it has my entire career,” Barry Smoot, a decades-long IDHS employee, wrote to Illinois Department of Human Services Secretary Grace Hou on May 26, 2021. Among the recommendations he wanted to make: that cameras be installed inside the facility.
Hou responded that same day, agreeing to meet.
But no meeting took place. Instead, Hou suggested Smoot start by sharing his concerns with her chief of staff, Ryan Croke, and the director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities, Allison Stark, according to records of the exchange. But those meetings never happened, either. (Stark left the agency in July.)
CONTINUE > https://www.propublica.org/article/illinois-choate-mental-health-abuse-history
