'Awful': DOJ probes widespread abuse of disabled patients at Illinois facility

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a wide-ranging investigation into Illinois’ treatment of people with developmental disabilities, examining whether the state provides adequate resources for community living and protects residents from harm in public institutions.

Tonya Piephoff, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities, informed employees of the investigation in a letter dated March 13 that was obtained by Capitol News Illinois.

“The investigation will examine whether the state unnecessarily institutionalizes, or puts at serious risk of institutionalization, adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” the letter stated. Illinois has long had one of the highest populations of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities living in state-run institutions in the nation.

The letter said the investigation also will look into abuse and neglect allegations of patients at three of the seven state-operated residential institutions run by IDHS, including the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center, in rural southern Illinois, which was the subject of an investigative series by Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica starting in 2022. The news organizations launched the series after the arrests of Choate staff members for abuse and neglect of residents; the articles documented instances of mistreatment by staff.

Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday that Illinois has already made significant changes to improve the safety of people with developmental disabilities living in state-run institutions, including installing cameras to help investigate mistreatment allegations. Pritzker said that individuals had moved to other institutions, and that the state had also enhanced the services provided to residents in those places. He did not address parts of the federal investigation focused on whether Illinois is relying too heavily on institutions to provide care instead of supporting people in community-based settings.

“The work has been done already,” Pritzker said of the DOJ investigation, speaking at an unrelated news conference. “It’s fine if there’s an investigation, but the reality is that things have moved significantly in the right direction, and I have done what I said I should do, and that I think we all agree should be done, which is keep everyone safe.”

IDHS issued a written statement on Wednesday that read: “As always, the department will cooperate in full with the independent investigation and continue, as permitted and appropriate, to keep staff and interested stakeholders updated.”

It added: “IDHS has made unprecedented investments in home and community based options to empower Illinoisans with disabilities to live in the least restrictive setting of their choosing.”

A spokesperson for the DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.

The latest investigation also promises to be far broader than a previous DOJ inquiry. The new effort will review how the state provides services to all people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, including those who live in the community or at home.

The DOJ had previously investigated Choate in 2007. In a report released two years later, it found the facility had not provided proper transition planning for those wanting to move into the community; and for those living inside the state-run facility, had failed to protect residents from abuse and neglect, and did not meet their health, education and treatment needs, in violation of constitutional and federal statutory rights. The DOJ ended its monitoring in 2013.

In its investigative series a decade later, Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica detailed cases documented in internal reports and police and court records where staff had beaten, choked, whipped, sexually assaulted and humiliated residents. Those cases included the 2014 beating by staff of a man with intellectual disabilities for failing to pull up his pants. They also included the verbal abuse of a resident with developmental disabilities in 2020, including a threat by staff to break one of his fingers, captured on a recorded 911 line, according to court records, police reports and IDHS watchdog findings.

The reporting also documented a culture of covering up abuse and neglect at the facility, findings later echoed by IDHS’ Office of Inspector General — the watchdog arm that investigates abuse and neglect allegations at state-run facilities and provides agency oversight.

In the wake of the reporting, Pritzker called the abuse detailed in the stories “awful” and “deeply concerning.” The agency promised to make systemic changes to keep Choate home to the nearly 230 people with developmental disabilities who lived there at the time.

But as the news organizations continued to report on the abuse and neglect at Choate that was documented in internal and state police reports, Pritzker and his leadership team at IDHS changed course, announcing plans to move at least half of Choate’s residents to community placements or to one of the six other state-operated facilities.

“We are at a point today where all of those things weren’t working to the degree we wanted them to, so today we are making transformational changes,” he told reporters at a news conference.

In December, Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy organization monitoring the transition of Choate residents, found the state falling short of its promises, with many individuals ending up in other institutions instead of community settings, according to a report.It said the state needed to do more to help people find community group homes and prepare them for the transition.

Illinois’ reliance on institutions represents “an antiquated and oppressive model of serving people with developmental disabilities,” said Andrea Rizor, an Equip for Equality attorney, who also said the group hopes the investigation will ultimately help bring more resources to community-based care.

The U.S. Supreme Court found in 1999 that confining people with disabilities in state institutions constituted discrimination, holding that patients with mental disabilities should be placed in community settings if they are medically cleared to do so and expressed a desire to live outside a facility.

Illinois largely failed to do that and ended up under a federal consent decree, which a judge ruled just last year should stay in place until the state made more progress.

Today, accusations of abuse and neglect also have continued to grow, at Choate and across the system. A December 2024 report by the Office of Inspector General said it had received over 15,000 complaints from individuals in institutions and community-based settings, a 24% increase from the previous year and an 80% jump since fiscal year 2020. The office has struggled to keep up, even after growing from 73 to 91 employees in a year. The report said the Office of Inspector General “still lacks enough staff to handle rising caseloads efficiently, estimating it needs at least 120 workers.”

In addition, two years after Pritzker’s announcement that 123 residents with intellectual or developmental disabilities would be moved out of Choate, 81 have been relocated, with most moving to other state-operated developmental centers. Not included in the governor’s initiative are 111 patients with developmental disabilities who are living in specialized units at Choate.

There currently are nearly 1,600 people with developmental disabilities living in state-run facilities in Illinois, with 242 residents stating they want to explore living in the community.