Nearly 1,000 survivors—most of them Black and Brown boys—have come forward to say they were raped, assaulted, and brutalized as kids inside Illinois juvenile detention centers. Some were as young as 9.

They were children, locked up and left behind. Now they’re speaking out. And instead of hearing them, the state of Illinois is trying to silence them again.

One man says he was 13 when guards took turns sexually assaulting him. Another survivor, now 26, described being pinned to the ground, naked and handcuffed, as five adults ripped off her clothes. She says one man, weighing 300 pounds, sat on her body while she screamed.

Many survivors say their abusers are still working in youth prisons today.

Yet Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul just moved to dismiss 430 of these cases—arguing the victims waited too long to speak up. But the law protects survivors of childhood sexual abuse from exactly that kind of argument. And most of them weren’t “waiting”—they were told no one would believe them. That’s what their abusers said to them, over and over again.

Governor JB Pritzker has not issued a single public statement in response to these allegations.

This isn’t about politics. It’s about the basic question: Will the state finally listen to the children it failed?

We demand that the State of Illinois:

• Immediately withdraw its motion to dismiss these cases
• Launch a fully independent investigation into systemic abuse in youth detention centers
• Remove and investigate any staff credibly accused by multiple survivors

Children were raped. The state looked away. And now it wants to walk away from the truth again.

We won’t let that happen.

Sign this petition to stand with the survivors and force Illinois leaders to face what they allowed—and what they must now answer for.