SE Illinois News

State Rep. Dave Severin (R-Marion) has thrown his support behind a call from House GOP leader Jim Durkin (R-Chicago) for hearings and an investigation in the wake of Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith recently being held in contempt of court for violating the rights of children.

“I’m joining his efforts demanding answers for our most vulnerable children,” Severin said in a post to Facebook.

According to news reports, a Cook County Juvenile Court judge recently issued two contempt of court orders against Smith, stipulating that he violated the rights of two children left neglected in facilities for months. In addition to the legal orders, DCFS could also face fines of as much as $2,000 a day until the judge deems those children properly placed.

As part of his pushback, Durkin sent a letter to state Rep. Camille Lilly (D-Oak Park), who also serves as the chairperson of the Human Services Appropriations Committee, noting that DCFS annually receives more than $1 billion in state support and is “tasked with protecting the state’s most vulnerable residents.”

Durkin added, “that is why it is so heartbreaking to see that DCFS Director Marc Smith is being held in contempt of court for failing to do his job.”

In one of the orders handed down by the judge, Smith reportedly described how a 9-year-old girl suffered years of physical and sexual abuse at home. After entering DCFS care, she was put into a psychiatric hospital. She was medically ready to be discharged back in June 2021, but she’s still hospitalized.

A judge wrote DCFS ignored numerous court orders to get the child out of the hospital late last year, resulting in Smith now being held in contempt. The girl has now been confined in the psychiatric hospital for more than six months since the date she was supposed to be discharged.

The other contempt order stems from a 13-year-old boy being forced to sleep in a storage room while in DCFS care.

“The unprecedented step by the Cook County judiciary to hold Director Smith in contempt needs to be a wake-up call to the General Assembly,” Durkin said in his letter. “The lack of action by DCFS is failing the children in the care of the state.”

In calling for Lilly to “immediately convene hearings” with Smith on the issue,” Durkin added, “the taxpayer dollars that have been allocated to DCFS are clearly not being spent the way the General Assembly intended, and the core mission of DCFS is not being fulfilled. It is the duty of your committee to immediately investigate this matter, our children can’t wait.”

The two new contempt cases also call for sanctions – fines of $1,000 a day, per child, for every day the 9-year-old and 13-year-old are not properly placed.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert pegs the price-tag taxpayers’ face each year to cover inappropriate placements at around $6 million. He added having the 13-year-old placed where he should be would cost in the neighborhood of $1,700 a month, or about one-fifth of the cost ($9,715) for the shelter where he’s been staying.