Catholic Children's Home seeks changes after attack

4-24-2011 Illinois:

Facility wants state to better screen residents

ALTON — An attack on a jogger has prompted the executive director of Catholic Charities to seek state policy changes that would give Catholic Children’s Home full disclosure of residents’ criminal histories.

"We are doing a temporary closure on (residential) intake. We are not doing any intakes until we get an official response from DCFS," Steve Roach, executive director of Catholic Charities Springfield Diocese, said Thursday.

Complete information on the potential residents, particularly felonies, would come from the director’s office of the Department of Children and Family Services before a youth is placed at the home, which is at 1400 State St., the request says.

The children’s home also wants the ability to reject any forthcoming youth or expel a client from its residential program — which it cannot do now, according to its contract with DCFS.

"We operate under a ‘no decline contract,’" Roach said. "When we discover a child is not appropriate, we request removal of a child, but the removal process can take months or years. We have no ability to require immediate removal of kids from the program."

The residential program can house up to 15 residents, all males, but only a few are true troublemakers, he said.

"We’ve got to know these backgrounds," Roach said. "What we’re seeing is, one or two kids responsible for the vast majority of incidents. We know who they are; the vast majority — 99 percent — do not go out to the community to commit crimes."

The home wants a policy that says the state would not send felons to it. New residents would be placed under a three-month assessment period to determine appropriateness for the program with extra supervision. And the home could request removal of any youth determined to be inappropriate or having needs beyond the scope of its program. The home would give a 24-hour notice, and the police department would provide temporary detention facilities.

The children’s home also would develop a community task force to monitor the program and make recommendations. It would hold a quarterly neighborhood forum for the public and set up a 24-hour hotline number for neighbors to reach home officials. ..For the remainder of this story.. by LINDA N. WELLER