The young woman offered to truckers for $20 was a juvenile ward of the state who endured a history of abuse before being placed in 2012 at Rock River Academy in Rockford, where officials pledge to keep youths safe and give them a shot at a better life.
Instead she fell into a world of sexual exploitation that seems to be accepted as a fact of life at some of the large residential treatment centers that get millions of taxpayer dollars each year to care for Illinois' most destitute and troubled young wards, a Tribune investigation found.
The prostitution emerges against a backdrop of violence at the facilities where the threat of sexual coercion is common, residents frequently square off in fights, destroy property, abuse medications and attack peers or staff, government records show.
Teenagers who were prostituted told the Tribune they would run away to escape the turbulence and brutality — then do what survival required on streets where they had no money or life skills. At the facilities, experienced residents introduced others to pimps, escort websites and street corners. Some disappeared into this world and never returned.
Rock River promises close supervision and intensive therapy to youths with behavioral and mental health problems, but state records show that Bohanan was repeatedly attacked by tougher girls — punched in the face, hit with a chair and taunted by a peer who poured a carton of milk on her bed.
"The kids do what they want, and the staff can't control them," Bohanan told the Tribune. "To me, it's like a game to survive. There's fighting, there's sexual acts going on with the peers. ... Girls come out worse and have more mental problems."
Bohanan started running away to the streets, according to Department of Children and Family
Ashley Phillips was wrenched from her home at age 14 in 2012 after enduring violent fights with her mother, records show. One thrashing spilled out of the house and left Phillips hospitalized with cuts, bruises and bite marks. "Let her stay in the streets," the mother told a child welfare worker, according to DCFS reports from the time.
Shuttled through a series of DCFS shelters and temporary foster homes, Phillips said she began to run away, fight foster siblings and abuse alcohol and marijuana. Finally a juvenile court judge placed her at Rock River in September 2012.
She was repeatedly bullied there until she began attacking others, DCFS records show.
At Rock River, Phillips told the Tribune, girls would routinely fake swallowing their psychotropic medicines and then later grind and snort them to get high. "I used to carry all the girls' pills in my sock bun — they never searched it," Phillips said. "Kids bring back weed from the public high school and smoke it."
Some girls prostituted themselves during short runs into the community. "Staff knew, but they couldn't do nothing about it," Phillips said. "It was completely easy to run."
Rock River sent the juvenile court glowing reports about Phillips. One said "overall Ashley's behavior has been very positive" and noted that "she receives group therapy at least three times per day for at least 45 minutes per session."
Read more of this Chicago Tribune story by clicking on the following: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-rock-river-case-files-met-20141203-story.html#page=1
ROCK RIVER ACADEMY AND RESIDENTIAL CENTER
from internet: http://rockriveracademy.com/
Rock River Academy
3445 Elmwood Road
Rockford, IL 61103
815-877-3440
Rock River Academy and Residential Center is committed to providing the highest quality mental health care and educational services for females ages 10-21 and adolescents with moderate to severe emotional disabilities.
Rock River Academy and Residential Center is committed to working with agencies, schools, families and other treatment providers to form treatment teams on behalf of the residents served. When working collaboratively to reintegrate the youth back into their communities, success is, most often, the outcome.
We provide exceptional personalized care to each resident. Our team of professionals is comprised of board-certified and child-trained psychiatrists, in addition to a host of master's-level clinicians for treatment programs.
Facility and treatment components include:
- Multi-disciplinary evaluations
- On-site Psychiatric and nursing care
- Qualified mental health professionals
- Case management
- Individual, group and family counseling
- On-site therapeutic day school licensed by Illinois State Board of Education
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