OFFICE OF THE COOK COUNTY PUBLIC GUARDIAN

JUVENILE DIVISION
2245 W. OGDEN AVENUE
4th Floor
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60612
CHARLES P. GOLBERT PHONE: (312)433-4300
Public Guardian FAX: (312)433-5129
ADULT GUARDIANSHIP &
DOMESTIC RELATIONS
DIVISIONS
69 W. WASHINGTON
7th Floor
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60602
PHONE: (312) 603-0800
FAX: (312) 603-9946
www.publicguardian.org

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

In DCFS’s FY2020, which ended on June 30, DCFS forced 314 of the children in its care, as
young as three years old, to languish locked up in psychiatric hospitals for an average of
more than 50 days – nearly two months of their lives – after they were ready to be
discharged because DCFS had nowhere to place them. This adds up to more than 43 years
of wasted children’s lives in just one year. This is illegal, clinically devastating for the
children, and a huge waste of scarce tax resources.

Contact: Charles Golbert, Public Guardian

Cell: (312) 636-4670
Email: Charles.golbert@cookcountyil.gov

Our office completed an analysis of children in the care of the Illinois Department of
Children and Family Services (DCFS) who languished in locked psychiatric hospitals after they
were ready for discharge, known as “beyond medical necessity” or “BMN,” for DCFS’s
FY2020, which ended on June 30. The problem continues to get worse every year. Our
analysis is based on DCFS’s own numbers, obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request.

Locked psychiatric hospitalization is intended to be very short term – typically two weeks
or less – to address an acute psychiatric episode. Beyond that, forcing children to remain locked
up in a psychiatric ward violates state and federal law and the constitution. Public Guardian
Charles Golbert described DCFS’s practice as “an illegal and inhumane assault on the children’s
basic human and civil rights, liberty, and dignity.” Golbert also said it’s “a grotesque waste of
scarce taxpayer resources.” He added that these are children who are already traumatized and
particularly vulnerable because they had previously been taken away from abusive or neglectful
parents, and entrusted to DCFS for their care and protection. “Instead of protecting these

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children, however, DCFS abuses them further by keeping them locked up in psychiatric wards
for no legitimate reason,” Golbert said.

The problem of DCFS’s children languishing in locked psychiatric institutions BMN

happens because DCFS’s shortage of placements for children has reached, in Golbert’s words, “a
crisis level.” These children are locked indoors all day, do not attend school and fall behind,
cannot participate in activities or sports, cannot see family or friends, learn new problematic
behaviors, and internalize feelings of helplessness and being unwanted. Golbert explained that,
“Not much says to a child more forcefully, ‘You don’t matter,’ than forcing the child to remain
locked up in a psychiatric ward for no reason other than having nowhere else to place the child.”

Children languishing BMN has more than quadrupled over the past six years, from 75
such children in FY2014 to 314 children in FY2020. Sixty-six of these 314 children (21%)
were 10 years old and younger. The youngest child was three years old. She spent 43 days –
nearly a month and a half of her young life – BMN. 

The average length of time children languish BMN has also increased every year, from
28 days in 2014 to more than 50 days – nearly two months of a child’s life – in 2020. Overall,
in FY2020 children in DCFS’s care spent a collective 15,802 days – more than 43 years –
forced to live in a locked psychiatric hospital for no reason other than DCFS had nowhere
to place them.

The problem has continued to get worse during DCFS’s FY2021, which started on July 1.
For the first eight weeks of FY2021, children in DCFS’s care spent a collective 4,587 days
locked up BMN. This adds up to more than twelve and a half years of wasted children’s lives
in just two months.

Golbert said that, “not only is this an obscenely cruel assault on the children’s civil rights
and clinically devastating for them, it is a curse for the taxpayer because psychiatric confinement
is far more expensive than residential or foster care.” In FY2020, the problem cost the
taxpayers more than $6.3 million. Unlike foster and residential care, none of this is subject to
Title IV-E federal reimbursement.

Golbert said, “Enough is enough. DCFS must immediately increase its placement
capacity and stop trampling on the human rights and dignity of its most vulnerable children.”

Our analysis, which is based on DCFS’s own numbers obtained from a FOIA request, is
attached to this Press Release.