Reaction to Allegations at Choate Developmental Center
The Choate Developmental Center in Anna in southern Illinois.
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Both Governor JB Pritzker and lawmakers are reacting to shocking allegations of delays in investigating abuse and neglect at a troubled home for the developmentally disabled in southern Illinois.
The story was published by Pro Publica, Capitol News Illinois, and Lee Enterprises:
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.)
It would take more than a year, and some high-profile arrests related to abuse at the facility, before the agency unveiled a plan to address poor conditions at Choate. This June, Hou sent a letter addressed to “stakeholders” in which she publicly acknowledged safety concerns at Choate for the first time. The agency, she said, would be rolling out a series of reforms in response to “serious allegations about resident abuse and neglect” at the facility located at the edge of the small town of Anna.
The reform plan, she wrote, includes hiring four additional security officers, installing 10 surveillance cameras on the facility grounds, having staff undergo new training and increasing the presence of senior IDHS officials inside the residential units. Her letter referenced safety issues that arose “in the last year” but offered no other specifics.
The reporters also detailed abuse of a disabled resident of the home:
As Blaine Reichard rose from a breakfast table at the Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center in southern Illinois, a worker ordered him to pull up his sagging pants.
A 24-year-old man with developmental disabilities, Reichard was accustomed to workers at the state-run residential facility telling him what to do. But this time he didn’t obey.
“I’m a gangsta! This is how we do it where I am from!” responded Reichard, who, despite his street-tough defiance, still slept with a teddy bear.
Investigators who later came to the scene of the 2014 incident heard various versions of what happened next. But multiple witnesses told the Illinois State Police that shortly after this exchange, Reichard was taken to the floor, held down by four mental health techs and repeatedly punched in the face, according to a 700-page state police investigation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
Reichard cursed and spat, trying to fight back. His resistance was met with more blows, according to witness accounts. Reichard, whose diagnoses include autism, would later tell police it felt like he was hit 100 times.
Multiple employees, including a doctor, told investigators that Reichard’s injuries were the worst they’d ever seen. One tech told police she vomited at the sight of his injured face.
Pritzker Tuesday called the allegations “awful,” and left open the opportunity of closing the struggling facility. But Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro), who represents the facility, says Pritzker is acting nonchalant with allegations of abuse and mismanagement on his watch.
Around 225 residents live at Choate.