When Michael Moss was 17, he ended up at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center. Employees threatened and beat him. Detailing incidents from 1996 to 2021, 272 plaintiffs, including Moss, recently joined nearly 400 others to say they were sexually abused at Illinois youth prisons.
According to the Chicago Tribune, officers abused Moss in the bathroom and his cell, threatening to throw him into solitary confinement if he resisted. Another survivor, Khadafi Muhammad, described being abused at 15 in an employee break room and during strip searches. They told him he was “good looking for a Black boy.”
As children, they were unprotected. But as adults, they’re breaking the stigma surrounding Black men experiencing sexual violence. Guards, nurses, kitchen staff, and chaplains abused their power and violated them.
And though the recent complaint blames Illinois’ “chronic mismanagement, overcrowding and inadequate supervision," the culture of weaponizing fear and shame in prisons and jails is universal -- and keeps victims and survivors silent as the violence continues. That’s why states nationwide have faced similar lawsuits.
Michael Moss, now 30 with his own family, isn’t the first to speak up – and hopefully won’t be the last to break the silence. “Even now, I feel so difficult at times to even talk about [it],” he says. “I wouldn’t wish my situation on anybody.”