The first phone call came with little detail the morning of March 15, 2023: Her son was hurt at Wayne County's juvenile jail and had been rushed to Children's Hospital. Stay put and wait for more information, detention staffers told her.
Several hours passed. Then medical personnel called that evening and shared the extent of her 12-year-old's condition: injuries to his eye, stiches for a gash on his head and his report that other youths had sexually assaulted him.
After a sleepless night of numbness and worry, it would be nearly 24 hours from the first call before she was allowed to see and then pick up her son from the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center, following a judge's sign-off on his release.
“Once he came out I had a sense of relief but I could tell that he … wasn’t the same,” said the mother, whom the Detroit Free Press is not naming to protect the identity of her son.
“They just let him out, gave me a bag of medication and sent him on his way. … They didn’t handle it at all. I would think as a parent, they could have stepped up and tried to make it better. They could have gave me some type of counseling resources. They did nothing.”
In her first interview with the Free Press since filing a federal lawsuit last week against county and state officials, the mother said she wants "justice" for children in the facility.
Her lawsuit, filed by attorney Cary McGehee, maintains Wayne County, its Executive Warren Evans and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel, along with others, violated her son's constitutional rights, including protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
More:Mom of boy who says he was raped at Wayne Co. juvenile jail sues county, state officials
It accuses officials of not properly supervising youths and putting her son in a unit with older residents, including an 18-year-old and at least one other juvenile who had a history of criminal sexual conduct. She is suing for more than $1 million in damages.
“Whatever they did, they don’t deserve that type of treatment in there," the mother said. "They go in there for protection. They go in there to learn. They go in there to try to be better. And they come out mentally … destroyed.”
The Free Press has reported since 2022 on the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center's problems with overcrowding and understaffing, creating conditions critics have called inhumane. The Free Press first reported on the boy's alleged rape in March 2023.
More:Problems we found at the Wayne County juvenile jail
Officials with Wayne County said on Tuesday they had not been served with the lawsuit and had no comment. Officials with MDHHS said last week they had no comment on pending litigation.
An official with the Michigan State Police said last week that they are still investigating the incident, which could include criminal charges for the youths who allegedly assaulted the boy.
The boy told police he was punched, stomped in the head and raped in the facility in separate incidents off and on over several hours. A state investigation found fault with staffers and the county forced six out of their jobs. Parts of the assaults were caught on camera but not the alleged sexual assault in a room, according to the state report.
The incident prompted the county's Evans to declare a health emergency at the county-run detention facility. Evans has said this spring that steps have been taken to improve conditions, including adding more in-house mental health treatment, hiring about 100 new staffers and boosting pay 35%, funded through a $10 million budget increase.
But state officials said earlier this year they intended to downgrade the facility to a "second provisional license," which could ultimately lead to license revocation. Evans has faulted state officials in the past for a shortage of long-term centers in Michigan where youths can be treated after they have been ordered there by courts, causing juveniles to languish at the county facility, which is designed for short-term stays.
The woman's son, now 14 years old, is in a residential treatment facility. One of the toughest parts was not being able to be with him in the hospital immediately after the assaults when "he needed me," she said. After getting home, it took him about two days before he could talk with her about the details, she said.
More:Boy, 12, may have been sexually assaulted at troubled Wayne County juvenile jail
The mother said she still doesn't understand why her son was grouped with older residents.
“I am still at a loss today," she said. "I don’t understand how a 12-year-old would get put with 18-year-olds that is already fighting sexual assault cases."
"Regardless of what these kids did to get put in there, if they are not going to protect these children, they need to shut down that facility."
County officials said after the incident that juveniles were being grouped by age and alleged offense.
There have been other allegations of sexual assault at the facility since then, including two separate incidents involving adults. One county staffer was charged in one case. In a separate investigation a state staffer was arrested but no charges were filed because of a "insufficient evidence" prosecutors said.
Another alleged sexual assault involving two youths occurred June 12, 2023 in a closet in an unlocked medical room at the facility. In that incident, one youth said he was forced to have sex with the other youth, according to his interview with a state investigator.
Sheriff deputies tried to interview one of the youths with a "Kids Talk" forensic interviewer at a different residential facility, but he told them "he wasn't going to talk about that," according to Wayne County Sheriff's Office records obtained by the Free Press through the Freedom of Information Act.
The investigators wrote in the report after the attempted interview that there wasn't enough evidence to file charges in that case.
Contact Christine MacDonald: cmacdonald@freepress.com or 313-418-2149. Follow her on X: @cmacfreep.
