(This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.)
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 last week that was obtained by Capitol News Illinois.
DOWNLOAD: Read the letter from the U.S. Department of Justice
“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.
The letter said the investigation also will probe abuse and neglect allegations of patients at the Choate, Jack Mabley and Samuel Shapiro developmental centers, three of the seven state-operated residential institutions operated by IDHS.
Illinois long has had one of the highest populations of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities living in state-run institutions in the nation. Choate is located in Anna in rural southern Illinois, Mabley in the small upstate town of Dixon, and Shaprio in Kankakee, 60 miles south of Chicago.
A spokesperson for Gov. JB Pritzker declined to comment on the investigation.
The Department of Human Services issued a written statement Wednesday: “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,” the statement read.
“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 Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.
A letter from Tonya Piephoff, director of the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Developmental Disabilities, notifying staff of the DOJ investigation.
The latest investigation also promises to be far broader than a previous Justice Department investigation, reviewing 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 state-run facilities, 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. DOJ ended its monitoring in 2013.
In an investigative series beginning in late 2022, Capitol News Illinois and ProPublica launched an investigation after the high-profile arrests of Choate staff members for abuse and neglect of residents. The news stories documented horrific instances of abuse and neglect by staff against Choate residents. The reporting 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 beating by staff of a man with intellectual disabilities for failing to pull up his pants, and verbal abuse of another resident, including a threat by staff to break the finger of a man with developmental disabilities, inadvertently 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.
Though the problems at Choate detailed in the reporting mirrored the DOJ’s report released a decade and a half earlier, there was no federal intervention until this recent action.
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 abuse and neglect at Choate 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 elsewhere.
“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.
As part of the planned transformation of Choate, residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities would be moved to community placements or to one of the six other state-operated facilities.
But 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 released earlier this year.
Long wait times, lack of available community-based providers and decisions made by guardians rather than the individuals themselves have slowed progress and led to frustration, the report found. And while Illinois has taken steps to improve options, the report said far more effort and resources are needed to make community living a real choice.
“Illinois’ service system for people with developmental disabilities continues to serve thousands of people in institutions — an antiquated and oppressive model of serving people with developmental disabilities,” said Andrea Rizor, an Equip for Equality attorney. “It is our hope the Department of Justice’s investigation will not only shed light on this antiquated system, but bring the expertise and resources to the table that Illinois so desperately needs to ensure people with developmental disabilities truly have the opportunity to successfully live as part of their communities.”
Reports of abuse and neglect continue
Accusations of abuse and neglect also continued to grow, at Choate and across the system. A December 2024 Office of Inspector General report 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.”
The U.S. Supreme Court found in 1999 that holding people with disabilities in state institutions constituted discrimination. In Olmstead v. L.C., the court decided 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.
In 2011, a federal judge put Illinois under a federal consent decree for failing to provide services that would allow people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in the community. As part of an agreement to settle a lawsuit filed 20 years ago, the state agreed to beef up services.
Today, two years after Pritzker’s announcement that 123 residents with intellectual or development disabilities would be moved out of Choate in accordance with a transformational plan, 81 have moved out of Choate — more than half to other SODCs, according to a December report from Equip for Equality. There are 111 other patients with development disabilities who are in Choate living in specialized units not included in the transitional plan.
There currently are nearly 1,600 people with developmental disabilities living in state-operated developmental centers in Illinois, with 242 residents stating they want to explore living in the community.
Last year, the state asked a judge to end federal oversight, stating they had done what they had promised and acknowledged the system would “never be perfect.” A federal judge rejected the state’s effort to end the consent decree and found the state still had more to do.
The current administration pointed to a budget stalemate in the previous administration as one of the reasons for the failure to build out group home placements, especially for individuals in crisis or with higher behavioral or medical needs.
Sen. Terri Bryant, a Murphysboro Republican, whose district neighbors Choate in southern Illinois, and who has advocated to ensure the facility stays open, said IDHS informed her of the investigation a few days ago. “We always welcome an extra review monitoring our most vulnerable citizens and look forward to seeing what the DOJ reports,” she said.
Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville, has long been a proponent of the state-operated developmental facility. He told a reporter Tuesday that he welcomed the federal investigation.
“We need these facilities, but we need them to be at their best,” he said.
Piephoff’s letter stated DOJ’s investigation would continue until early fall with a report to follow.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
