[ACLU-CU ALERT] more on Ben Wolf

[Announce at aclu-cu.org]

4:00 PM today in room D of the Law School...

Attorney Benjamin S. Wolf has been the Director and chief legal
counsel of the ACLU of Illinois' Children's and Institutionalized  Persons'
Project since 1984.  The Project provides legal representation  to Illinois
residents of prisons, jails, mental health centers,
developmental centers and institutions for children, such as group homes
and foster homes.  He supervises the Project's legal and educational  work
and provides legal backup on such issues for the ACLU's lobbyist in
Springfield.
        Under his direction, the Project has consistently challenged the
systemic abuse and neglect of the most helpless of our citizens in the
courts, the only forum in which they could stand on equal footing with
powerful officials and agencies which too frequently fail to provide  safe
conditions and decent care.
        For example, in K.L. v. Edgar, the Project sued the State of
Illinois for providing inadequate treatment and poor care to the
thousands of patients in the twelve state-operated mental health centers
throughout Illinois.  The case was settled in 1997 after the state  agreed
to a series of reforms, including a new training program for its  workers
and administrators.  In  W.W. v. Johnson, the Project challenged  the
appalling health and safety violations at Cleaver Shelter, a
facility for abused and neglected boys.  In A.T. v. County of Cook, Wolf
forced the state to create a program of specialized foster homes for
children who remained in juvenile detention for months after juvenile  court
judges had ordered them released.

        The increasing number of cases involving the mistreatment of
children who are dependent upon the state for their care and support led  to
the creation of the Project's Children's Initiative.  The cornerstone  of
the new program was a 1988 lawsuit, B.H. v. Johnson, the first  federal case
to challenge the complete breakdown of the Illinois
Department of Children and Family Services.
        The suit charged that DCFS ignored the medical and psychological
needs of the thousands of children in its custody.  These children were
warehoused in dangerous institutions and shuffled needlessly between  foster
homes so that they lost any chance of forming healthy emotional  bonds.  In
many instances they were subjected to the very kinds of abuse  and neglect
which caused the state to remove them from their homes.
        In 1990, with the agreement of the parties, Judge John Grady
appointed a panel of experts to evaluate the ACLU's allegations.  The
experts' 500 page report, released in January, 1991, was a scathing
indictment of the state's mistreatment of thousands of foster children.
Based on the recommendations of these experts, the parties negotiated a
lengthy Consent Decree mandating sweeping changes in virtually all DCFS
practices.  Judge Grady approved the Decree in December, 1991.  The  Decree
caused significant increases in DCFS funding.  In 1995, however,  the
parties agreed that the state had failed to meet some of its
obligations under the Consent Decree.  The ACLU and DCFS agreed to a  series
of new strategies now in place to improve the lives of children  in state
custody.
        A native of Evanston, Wolf received his undergraduate degree
from Washington University in St. Louis.  He graduated cum laude from
Boston College Law School in 1979 and was an editor of the Boston  College
Law Review.  Wolf served as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge  James B.
Moran in the Northern District of Illinois from 1979 through  1980.  Prior
to joining the ACLU legal staff, Wolf was a litigation  associate at the law
firm of Jenner & Block in Chicago from 1981 to  1984.